 bill no 153 of  2017 the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee (amendment) bill, 2017 byshri balka suman, mp a billfurther to amend the national rural employment guarantee act, 2005be  it enacted by parliament in the sixty-eighth year of the republic of india as follows:—amendment of section 2242 of 20052 in section 22 of the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee act, 2005 (hereinafter referred to as the principal act), in sub-section (1), after clause (a), the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:—5"provided that in case of engagement of unskilled manual worker for any agricultural operation or activity by a farmer, fifty per cent wages shall be paid by the central government and the remaining fifty per cent by the farmer concerned"3 in schedule i of the principal act, in para 1b, after sub-para (x), the following subpara shall be inserted, namely:—amendment of the schedule i"(xa) agricultural operations or activities by unskilled workers;"" statement  of  objects  and  reasonsnow a days it has been observed that workers are not available for farming during agriculture season the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee (mgnrega) scheme formulated under the mgnrega  act, 2005, though helped the poor to some extent but is causing some inconvenience particularly to the farmers they are facing trouble during agricultural season because of mgnrega scheme as most of the workers are engaged under the scheme for non-agricultural activities there is also a hue and cry among the farmers due to the scarcity of labour force in agricultural operationsin order to make mgnrega scheme more useful and productive to the agricultural operations, there is an urgent need to dovetail agricultural operations with the mgnrega scheme by including thereunder the permitted activities under the act if implemented, it will not only help farmers in timely agricultural operations, but also ensure employment to the weaker sections of the societyhence this billnew delhi;balka sumanjuly 2, 2017 financial memorandumclause 2 of the bill provides for engagement of unskilled manual work to any agricultural operation or activity by a farmer under the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee (mgnrega) scheme it also provides for payment of fifty per cent of wages by the central government and the remaining fifty per cent by the farmer concerned the bill, therefore, if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india a recurring expenditure of about rupees five hundred crore per annum is likely to be involvedno non-recurring expenditure is likely to be involved annexure extracts from the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee act, 2005 (42 of 2005)      22 (1) subject to the rules as may be made by the central government in this behalf, the central government shall meet the cost of the following namely:—(a) the amount required for payment of wages for unskilled manual work under the scheme;       schedule   i[see  section 4(3)]       minimum features of a rural employment guarantee scheme      1b the focus of the scheme shall be on the following works and the order of priority shall be determined by each gram panchayat in meetings of the gram sabha and the ward sabha, namely:—       (x) agriculture related works, such as, nadep composting, vermin-composting, liquid bio-manures;       ———— a billfurther to amend the national rural employment guarantee act, 2005————(shri balka suman, mp)gmgipmrnd—992ls(s3)—26-07-2017