CM urges Centre to extend NREGS to other districts of HP

Shimla, Dec 21 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today said his government has approached the Centre for extending the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) to all districts of the state to provide employment opportunities to the deserving.

Presiding over the first meeting of the HP State Employment Guarantee Council, which met under his chairmanship here, he said the scheme was being implemented in Chamba and Sirmour districts of the state.

Mr Singh said three more districts of Shimla, Kangra and Mandi were likely to be included in the scheme next year.

The state government was considering a proposal to empower the panchayat sahayaks, functioning in Chamba and Sirmaur panchayats where secretaries were not posted, with the powers of signing the documents relating to the Scheme, he said.

He said the government was also extending the touring period of the junior engineers (JEs) assigned the responsibility of evaluation of the construction projects in both the districts to give momentum to the pace of development in these districts.

The Chief Minister expressed his gratitude to UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for envisioning the scheme for benefiting the poor and deserving people of the country.

Reiterating his government's resolve for uplifting the socially poor and weaker sections of the society, he said the state government had spent Rs. 19.21 crore in Sirmour and Chamba districts during the last one year, while issuing job cards to 91,507 people.

The scheme was of immense benefit to the rural people and was aimed at poverty alleviation, which had been the policy of the successive Congress Governments, he added.

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