By IANS,
Ranchi : The Congress-led government’s job guarantee programme under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) may be pro-poor but it will work only if state governments implement it well, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi said Thursday.
“In Congress-ruled states like Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam and in other states, it is implemented well and there are others where it is not. Therefore, there is no chance of corruption eroding the scheme if the state government intends to implement it well,” Gandhi told reporters.
Gandhi cited the example of the Uttar Pradesh government where he said the programme was not taken seriously.
“The central government designs programmes and sends money and can put pressure on state governments to a certain extent. If the state government is not interested, then we can’t do much,” he said here. The Congress MP is on a two-day visit to Jharkhand.
On the question of price rise, Gandhi said it was the state government’s responsibility.
Reiterating that the government’s aim had always been to help the poor, Gandhi said: “In all the states where the Congress is in power, the focus is on the poor. Whether it is mid-day meal scheme in schools, Right to Information Act, NREGA or the universal ID programme, our focus is on the common man.”