Need to have parity of wage under MNREGA: Jairam

He asked officials to bring MNREGA workers under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana as only 15 to 20 per cent of them were at present covered under it. Ramesh said that 2014-15 should be celebrated as Convergence Year for MNREGA.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain Aditya said the act had brought in a revolution and had helped stop the distress migration from rural to urban areas.

In his address, Minister of State for Rural Development Lal Chand Kataria said the scheme had led to creation of durable assets, besides recharging groundwater through watershed schemes thus helping in expansion of irrigated land.

Planning Commission member Mihir Shah said that in the past three to four years MNREGA had been made more flexible and about 30 new works were added as per state specifications.

He said social audit had helped check corruption to a large extent and with full implementation of Direct Benefits Transfer, the role of middlemen would be abolished.

Forty-seven awards were distributed on the occasion for best initiatives and innovations in the job scheme.