By IANS
New Delhi : Over 30 million jobs will be created during the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12) to eradicate rural poverty and unemployment, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said here Monday.
Addressing the annual press conference to review the performance of his ministry, Singh said: “The target is to create 10 million employment in the fast-expanding construction sector, another 10 million in the textile sector and another 10 million in food processing.”
He also announced his government’s plans to train at least one member of a Below Poverty Line (BPL) family in skills to develop them for gainful employment during the 11th Plan period.
“We are leading a war against poverty and the best way to fight poverty is through employment. We have wage employment through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and also have rural self-employment schemes like the Swarnjayanti, Grameen Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY). Then we also have Sampoorna Gramen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY),” he said.
He also claimed: “NREG is turning out to be a big success. There may be some problems here or there. I write to chief ministers and state governments and hold review meetings every three months with the chief ministers.”
Rubbishing media reports that debunked NREG as a failure, Singh said: “Some people start crying the moment some money goes to the poor. I had myself asked the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) to conduct an enquiry. His draft report has to be discussed with the state governments.
“This report has deliberately been quoted out of context by twisting facts,” said a visibly annoyed rural development minister.
“Thanks to our work, the demand for workers has gone up all over the country. For so many years the Left was striving to secure minimum wages for workers. But now thanks to the NREG, the worker is not just getting minimum wages but also questioning his employer in terms of the time and distance for the work he is asked to do,” Singh said.
He claimed that the United Progressive Alliance government is doing all-round work for improving the living conditions of the rural poor. “We are working for providing drinking water to them. The successful completion of our schemes will ensure availability of water and ensure proper quality of drinking water,” he said.
He also declared: “There will be no more Singur or Nandigrams. The new rehabilitation and resettlement policy is going to be shortly made into a law applicable all over India, after which you will first have to resettle the occupant of the land before acquiring his land.”