Section 4. Employment Guarantee Schemes for rural areas

CHAPTER III EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEMESANDUNEMPLOYMENT ALLOWANCE 4. Employment Guarantee Schemes for rural areas.— (1) For the purposes of giving effect to the provisions of section 3, every State Government shall, within six months from the date of commencement of this Act, by notification, make a Scheme, for providing not less than one hundred days of guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household in the rural areas covered under the Scheme and whose adult members, by application, volunteer to do unskilled manual work subject to the conditions laid down by or under this Act and in the Scheme: Provided that until any such Scheme is notified by the State Government, the Annual Action Plan or Perspective Plan for the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) or the National Food for Work Programme (NFFWP) whichever is in force in the concerned area immediately before such notification shall be deemed to be the action plan for the Scheme for the purposes of this Act. (2) The State Government shall publish a summary of the Scheme made by it in at least two local newspapers, one of which shall be in a vernacular language circulating in the area or areas to which such Scheme shall apply. (3) The Scheme made under sub-section (1) shall provide for the minimum features specified in Schedule I. 4. (1) The focus of the Scheme shall be on the following works as categorised below: I. Category: A: PUBLIC WORKS RELATING TO NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT- 2[(i) Rural sanitation related works, such as, individual household latrines, School toilet units, Anganwadi toilets either independently or in convergence with schemes of other Government Departments and unskilled wage component for construction of Community Sanitary Complexes in convergence with "Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) to achieve 'open defecation free' status, and solid and liquid waste management as per prescribed norms;] (ii) Watershed management works such as contour trenches, terracing, contour bunds, boulder checks, gabion structures and spring shed development resulting in a comprehensive treatment of a watershed; 1. Subs by Notification No. S.O. 19(E) Dated 03-01-2014. 2. Subs. by Notification No. S.O. 2198(E), dated 27-11-2019. (iii) Micro and minor irrigation works and creation, renovation and maintenance of irrigation canals and drains; 1[(iv) renovation of traditional water bodies including desilting of irrigation tanks and other water bodies and conservation of old step wells or baolis;] (v) Afforestation, tree plantation and horticulture in common and forest lands, road margins, canal bunds, tank foreshores and coastal belts duly providing right to usufruct to the households covered in Paragraph 5; and (vi) Land development works in common land. II. Category B:[2] [COMMUNITY ASSETS OR INDIVIDUAL ASSETS] FOR VULNERABLE SECTIONS (ONLY FOR HOUSEHOLDS IN PARAGRAPH 5) (i) Improving productivity of lands of households specified in Paragraph 5 through land development and by providing suitable infrastructure for irrigation including dug wells, farm ponds and other water harvesting structures; (ii) Improving livelihoods through horticulture, sericulture, plantation, and farm forestry; (iii) Development of fallow or waste lands of households defined in Paragraph 5 to bring it under cultivation; 3[(iv) Unskilled wage component in construction of houses sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin or such other State or Central Government Scheme;] (v) Creating infrastructure for promotion of livestock such as, poultry shelter, goat shelter, piggery shelter, cattle shelter and fodder troughs for cattle; and (vi) Creating infrastructure for promotion of fisheries such as, fish drying yards, storage facilities, and promotion of fisheries in seasonal water bodies on public land; 4[(vii) Construction of bio-gas plant for individual; and (viii) unskilled wage component towards the construction of bio-gas plant for community.] 1. Subs. by Notification S.O. No. 973(E) dated 27-3-2017 2. Subs. by the Notification S.O. No. 1888(E) Dated 21-7-2014 3. Subs. by the Notification S.O. No. 403(E) Dated 25-1-2018. 4. Subs. by the Notification S.O. No.1719(E) Dated 8-4-2022. 4. No job card can be cancelled except where it is found to be a duplicate, or if the entire household has permanently migrated to a place outside the Gram Panchayat and no longer lives in the village. III. Category C: COMMON INFRASTRUCTURE[1] [INCLUDING FOR NRLM] COMPLIANT SELF HELP GROUPS (i) Works for promoting agricultural productivity by creating durable infrastructure required for bio-fertilizers and post-harvest facilities including pucca storage facilities for agricultural produce; and (ii) Common work-sheds for livelihood activities of self-help groups. IV. Category D: RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE: 2[(i) Rural sanitation related works, such as, individual household latrines, School toilet units, Anganwadi toilets either independently or in convergence with schemes of other Government Departments and unskilled wage component for construction of Community Sanitary Complexes in convergence with Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) to achieve 'open defecation free' status, and solid and liquid waste management as per prescribed norms;] (ii) Providing all-weather rural road connectivity to[3] [unconnected villages and border areas] and to connect identified rural production centers to the existing pucca road network; and construction of pucca internal roads or streets including side drains and culverts within a village; 4[(iii) Construction of play fields and compound walls for government run schools in the villages;] (iv) Works for improving disaster preparedness or restoration of roads or restoration of other essential public infrastructure including flood control and protection works, providing drainage in water logged areas, deepening and repairing of flood channels, chaur renovation, construction of storm water drains for coastal protection; (v) Construction of buildings for Gram Panchayats, women self-help groups' federations, cyclone shelters, Anganwadi centers, village haats and crematoria at the village or block level. (vi) Construction of Food Grain Storage Structures for implementing the provisions of The National Food Security Act 2013 (20 of 2013); (vii) Production of building material required for construction works under the Act as a part of the estimate of such construction works. (viii) Maintenance of rural public assets created under the Act;[5] [including maintenance of tunnel and bridges constructed by the Border Roads Organization] and 1. Subs. by Notification S.O. No. 1888(E) Dated 21-7-2014. 2. Subs. by Notification S.O. No. 2198(E), dated 2-7-2020. 3. Subs. by Notification S.O. No. 4598(E), dated 3-11-2021. 4. Subs. by Notification S.O. No. 973(E), dated 27-3-2020. 5. Ins. by Notification S.O. No. 3126(E), dated 7-7-2022. (ix) any other work which may be notified by the Central Government in consultation with the State Government in this regard. (2) The order of priority of works shall be determined by each Gram Panchayat in the meetings of the Gram Sabha keeping in view potential of the local area, its needs, local resources and in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 9. 1[Provided that the District Programme Coordinator shall ensure that at least 60% of the works to be taken up in a district in terms of cost shall be for creation of productive assets directly linked to agriculture and allied activities through development of land, water and trees.] (3) Works which are non-tangible, not measurable, repetitive such as, removing grass, pebbles, agricultural operations, shall not be taken up.