The rural development (RD) ministry has formed an expert group to converge NREGS works with that of the water shed programme.

The convergence of NREGA activities with those of the watershed development programmes of other department/ministries assumes importance as more than 50% of the NREGA activities specified in schedule I of the act are essentially watershed development works in the areas of land development, water harvesting and afforestation.

The group will include the joint secretaries of panchayati raj, water resources, environment, land reforms, and will be headed by CEO of the National Rainfed Area Authority. The expert group will devise processes, methodologies, and mechanism for tweaking NREGS for watershed development with necessary support for adoption of suitable production technologies. It will advise on documentation of location-specific development works, prescribe production technology/ farming systems specific to land use and water availability for judicious utilization of created resources in the watershed for different agro-climatic regions. It will also evolve strategy for resource sharing by the beneficiaries/user groups and for maintenance of structures created.

The group will help in the launch of pilot projects in selected districts to test and validate the methodologies developed for later adoption all over the country.