In a bid to woo
tribals ahead of Lok Sabha polls, the government on Friday raised the workdays
under its flagship rural employment guarantee programme MNREGA from 100 to 150
for tribals, a move that will benefit 14 lakh families.
The Union Cabinet
decision will come into effect from April this year. Those tribals who have
received land rights under the Forest
Rights Act, 2006 will be eligible for additional 50 days of wage employment
under the rural job scheme.
The beneficiaries would be those who have
completed 100 workdays in that particular financial. They will be given a job
card of a different colour to distinguish from the regular MNREGA workers.
Around 14 lakh individual and community titles have been distributed under FRA
2006. Of these around 8 lakh individual titles have been given in Andhra
Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa.