NREG scheme to cover rest of country by 2011: Raghuvansh Prasad

New Delhi, Dec 15 (UNI) Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad today said all districts of the country would be covered under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government's flagship National Rural Guarantee Employment (NREG) Scheme by 2011.

Stating that work was going on apace, Mr Singh said in all 40.36 crore mandays had been created in 200 selected districts in the first phase of implementation with 1.23 crore families seeking jobs.

He was replying to a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the situation arising out of the tardy implementation of the NREG scheme in some states of the country, raised by Congress member V Narayanasamy on December 12.

Within the next five years, the scheme would be rolled out in the rest of the country. The parameters for choosing the scheme in the first phase were whether the area was drought-prone, level of poverty and the number of SC/ST population.

However, due to the holding of elections in the states of West Bengal, Kerala, Meghalaya, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh, the NREG scheme was not proceeding as per expectation and was behind schedule. He expressed hope that by the year-end the implementation would pick up.

Reeling out figures, the Minister said of the beneficiaries 23 per cent were Scheduled Caste, 48 per cent were Scheduled Tribe and 40 per cent were women.

About states taking the credit for the scheme, he said letters were being written to state governments that this was a national scheme. On the issue of minimum wages, the minister admitted some difficulty as the miniomum amount differed from state to state.

The Minister assured the members that their concerns and complaints regarding transparency, training, distribution of job cards would be attended to.

Denying that the scheme was a drain on the nation's resources, Mr Singh said apart from the twin purposes of ending migration and creating jobs, water conservation and forestry were being accorded top priority. A slew of projects worth Rs 4.49 crore, mainly in rural areas, were being launched.

The scheme had evoked interest in Iran, South Africa, Malawi, Sussex University, the World Bank and the U N agencies.

UNI SD MSJ DB1531