New Delhi, Sept. 23: The Centre has decided to appoint a committee of officials to examine norms for projects executed on private land under the rural job plan, NREGA.

The move follows a controversy over what kind of owners should benefit from getting projects on their land — like digging of tube wells and setting up other irrigation facilities — done by NREGA workers who are paid by the Centre.

The government has announced plans to allow such work on the land of small and marginal farmers — those with holdings of less than two hectares — with a preference for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Such farmers hold 80 per cent of all farmland in the country and 40 per cent of the cultivable portion.

But activists and politicians have railed against the move, saying it is against the spirit of the law and the interests of Dalits and the poor.

So far, NREGA projects on private land were allowed only on the plots of SC/STs, below-poverty-line families, beneficiaries of land reforms and beneficiaries of the Indira Awaas Yojana.

Activists like Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze say the new plan to include small farmers — across all categories — subverts democratic institutions and has been pushed through without any consultation. The activists fear nepotism in the selection of small farmers.

Under the plan, small farmers need only the panchayat’s approval to get the projects which, other than irrigation, include land development, and horticulture plantation.

But there is confusion over the deployment of workers, duration of employment, assessment of work and payment to the workers when they are engaged on private land.

The panel, likely to include representatives from states too, will look into these grey areas.