By IANS
New Delhi : Rahul Gandhi, appointed general secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) two days ago, Wednesday led a delegation of the other AICC general secretaries to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to demand extending coverage of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme to all districts of India.
The prime minister on his part seemed prepared to receive the delegation and immediately promised to favourably consider their demand and decide on it “shortly”.
“The delegation discussed the expansion of the NREGA to uncovered areas of the country,” said a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office Wednesday.
The members of the delegation mentioned that the NREGA is a landmark legislation of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. It is also one of the important promises in the Congress party manifesto and a key element of the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of the UPA.
The NREGA, currently being implemented with central funds in over 330 districts, guarantees 100 days of employment for national minimum wages to anyone registering and seeking employment. Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh also considers it as an effective means to prevent large-scale migration of rural workforce into cities as well as a means of providing greater community and civic amenities in rural areas.
The Act itself provides for extending the scheme to all the 600 districts of the country within five years, and if the 14th Lok Sabha completes its full term the NREGS should be effective in all the 600 districts before the next round of elections, scheduled for 2009.
Besides Gandhi, the delegation comprised Ashok Gehlot, Janardan Dwivedi, Kishore Chandra Deo, Mukul Wasnik, Margaret Alva, Prithviraj Chavan, V. Narayanaswamy (all general secretaries), and Veerappa Moily, Satyavrat Chaturvedi and V. Arun Kumar (senior Congress leaders).
On Tuesday, Gandhi had paid an informal visit to the AICC headquarters at 24, Akbar Road, to select an office room for himself.