Close on the heels of a demand from the new AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today decided to extend the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to all the districts of the country from April 1, 2008.Announcing this at a press conference today, Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said that from April next year, 265 more districts would fall under the ambit of the livelihood guarantee programme. At present, NREGA is operational in 330 districts of the country, with 200 districts covered from the first phase that was inaugurated in February 2006. From April this year, an additional 130 districts were added under the Act."The plan to extend the programme countrywide was there for some time, and the ministry was working upon it. Just at the same time Rahul Gandhi asked for the same which came as a major support for the plan," Raghuvansh Singh said.Snapping the reporters who repeatedly enquired about Rahul Gandhis' interference that may have led to the flash decision, Singh said,"Why? Even a lot of MPs were asking for the same. Anyway, I can only comment on what the goernment version is. But if Rahul Gandhi's request has worked, it is only benefitting the programme, right?"The minister estimated that NREGA would require around Rs 20,000 crore annually, to cover all the 595 districts in the country which are classified as rural. The amount allocated to NREGA for 2006-07 was Rs 11,300 crore (200 districts) and Rs 12,000 crore for 2007-08 (330 districts).NREGA provided employment to 2.1 crore households in the first phase districts and created 90.5 crore man days, officials said. Eight lakh works were taken up, of which 54% were under water conservation and harvesting.
