Montek reviews NREGA implementation

Hyderabad, Feb 2 (UNI) Enthused by the successful implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP), the Centre proposed to extend it to more districts soon, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said today.

Visiting a remote Kothapally village in neighbouring Rangareddy district to get first-hand information from the beneficiaries on the NREGA rededication day, he said he was very much impressed with the way the programme was being implemented in the state.

The Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, along with Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh, witnessed the desilting of the village tank by the landless poor under the NREGP.

Describing the NREGP as the flagship programme of the United Progressive Alliance(UPA) Government, Mr Ahluwalia said he would carry this impression to Prime Minister,'' who was keen on extending this programme to more drought-prone districts to alleviate poverty''.

Interacting with some of the beneficiaries, he said he had got the impression that the programme had transformed the lives of the rural poor by not just guaranteeing wages, but also providing a guarantee for a better life.

Ms Neeru Burra, who conducted an independent study of the implementation of the programme through online monitoring in Andhra Pradesh, said the social audit conducted in 9000 habitations showed that corruption was just between one and two per cent, unlike the previous Food for Work Programme when it was even difficult to track down as high as 90 per cent of the beneficiaries.

Her organisation had been asked to do social audit of poverty alleviation programmes for their effective implementation, she added.

UNI