File picture: Villagers of Kumkhal village of Kalahandi district in Odisha return from MNREGA works.
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BISWARANJAN ROUT
The Centre has added “forest fire management” as a new category of job work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), 2005, according to a notification issued by the Rural Development Ministry.
It said that “forest fire management” has been added along with “afforestation, tree plantation and horticulture in common and forest lands, road margins, canal bunds, tank foreshores and coastal belts, duly providing right to usufruct (persons with the right can use the property, collect income from it, without ownership) to the households covered in Paragraph 5”.
Water conservation, water harvesting structures, earthen dams, stop dams, check dams, watershed management works such as contour trenches, terracing, contour bunds, boulder checks, gabion structures and spring shed development, as well as micro and minor irrigation works, including creation, renovation and maintenance of canals and drains, renovation of traditional water bodies, including desilting, are some of the work areas the government has allotted for MNREGA workers.
Even land development works in common land is part of MNREGA, where states allow job work.
Sources said that Gujarat and some other States were using MNREGA funds for forest fire management through some other provisions as it was not explicitly mentioned in the list and there was a demand for its inclusion. Forest protection works like creation of fire lines help in preservation and improvement of forests that are threatened or affected by natural or man-made causes, according to a report of the Gujarat government.
“Forest fires are a common occurrence between February and May because of the hot and dry climate, and they pose a great risk to life and infrastructure. Through MGNREGA, forest fire control activities including boundary wall, fencing, and joint patrolling are undertaken for effective protection of forests and wildlife,” the report said. It had suggested a lot of areas where MGNREGA workers can be hired.
Stressing that genuine beneficiaries under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MNREGA) Scheme are not excluded while preventing misuse of job cards, the Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj in April had asked the government to develop a system that allows manual verification and corrections so that workers are not “unjustly removed” from the flagship programme.
The Committee, headed by Congress MP Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, had also said that once kaccha (temporary) work under MGNREGA is completed, it should be converted into pakka (permanent), wherever necessary, to prevent repetitive work cycles and wastage of resources.
The panel also suggested that the Ministry of Rural Development should consider inclusion of disaster relief and climate-resilient activities under the permissible ambit of the MNREGA so that the rural populace is prepared to meet challenges posed by climate change.
Published on August 8, 2025
