The government's flagship job security scheme - the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (nrega) -is set to undergo major changes by opening its doors to skilled labour and laying emphasis on creation of 'permanent' or 'viewable' assets. The idea, first mooted by Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia some time ago, is now being seriously deliberated upon in the ministry of rural development. Several audits have revealed that most of the Central funds under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (nregs) have gone into road construction projects. This scheme is plagued by incomplete and abandoned works, and lack of maintenance of completed works. Some of these roads get washed away by rains during successive monsoons. Even though quality control guidelines for the assets created under nrega were issued by the previous government in 2008, these have been rarely followed. The audits have also revealed that though water conservation and water harvesting have been listed as priorities under nrega, only five states have made substantial allocations under these heads. In 2007, Ahluwalia felt that the changes would suit the needs of the states, which have been complaining against the present guidelines under nrega, prohibiting the construction of permanent assets like hospitals and check dams. Some states took the view that in spite of the funds being available, such restrictions constrain states from spending the money. Sources said guidelines on the internal working of the programme would be changed to accommodate skilled workers like carpenters and masons, even as provisions to use machines would be introduced to create 'viewable' assets in rural areas. The idea is to exploit the potential of nrega for re-generating the village economy in India. Rural development minister CP. Joshi says, "We want to fashion nrega into an instrument to make the rural people self-sufficient and to provide an opportunity for development in the panchayats." Officials involved in the exercise say that while the provision of wages under nregs has helped increase rural incomes and may have become politically productive for the ruling regime, village development through productive asset-creation still remains a distant objective. One of the suggestions that has come up is that a premium wage should be paid for development programmes that will ensure that the work done is completed and is useful. In the run-up to the Union budget, the issue of 'viewable assets' has come up repeatedly in the ministry of rural development to address complaints of corruption in the programme, where gram pradhans are said to pocket the money by creating fake muster rolls and showing fake works. The creation of 'viewable' assets will help minimise the forgery of muster rolls. The ministry is also planning to create a 'Register of Assets' under nregs across the country. This register would be created after physical verification of these assets. The issue of corruption in the programme came up for discussion in the latest performance review meeting of state representatives called by the rural development ministry. In fact, the minister called upon the states to make a time-bound programme to check mishandling of Central funds. Meanwhile, housing, roads and water will be the main focus areas of the rural development ministry. Extra emphasis will be laid on self-employment schemes in rural areas to consolidate the vote bank in more than six lakh villages of the country. The num