It is back to the 1970s as far as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is concerned. The job guarantee scheme is set to provide food grain as part of wages. The rural development ministry, which found its NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) allocations squeezed in the Budget, has approached the food ministry with a proposal to provide food for work under the scheme.

The scheme, which guarantees 100 days of work on demand to any rural citizen, had a budget of about Rs 40,000 crore till last year. It found its allocation almost halved in this year’s Budget.