NREGP extension mooted by council, Rahul only backed it

Rahul Gandhi may have emerged as the new hero for the have-nots with the extension of the National rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) to all the districts of the country following his memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

But what dusts some of the shine off the halo around the Congress general secretary is that the decision to extend NREGP announced yesterday was as much in response to a recommendation of the Central NREGP Council coming much earlier than Gandhi stepped in.

On September 20 the Central NREGP Council, the statutory body set up under the NREGA (the National rural Employment Guarantee Act) to advise the Government on NREGP, met and discussed the need to immediately extend the programme to all the districts in the country from the current lot of 330 districts. The main decision taken in the meeting was to extend the Act to all the districts in the country.

The decision was conveyed to the Prime Minister's office too. But the Rural Development Ministry which set up the Council under the Act and minister Raghuvansh Prasad who chaired the Council meeting on September 20 swallowed the fact with even the NREGP website silent on the matter.

The website however mentions the meeting of the delegation led by Rahul Gandhi with Prime Minister and recommending the extension of NREGP to all the districts.

Council member Annie Raja said that it is a matter of joy that the decision has been taken, but she pointed out that it was the Council which had, in the first place, recommended to the PMO that the programme be extended and two days earlier, activist Aruna Roy had raised it in a meeting of the National Advisory council.

"I am not saying that Rahul Gandhi is wrong or he can take no credit. But there is a background to all this hungama. Rahul knew things were working in this direction and he only backed it," says Raja.

Raja expressed surprise that the minister for rural development Raghuvansh Prsad chose to remain silent on this point. I thought the minister would reveal this at the press conference yesterday.

This was the main decision taken and the minister himself was chairing the council meeting. He asked us if we should recommend it to the government and we all raised hands, says Raja. Other members included Subhashini Ali and Jean Dreze, both of whom could not be contacted.

The other decisions taken at the Council meeting was to extend NREGP work sites to land owned by all BPL families in addition to those owned by SC/ST families. It also considered the inclusion of people who have received land under land reforms, she said.

The Council set up under the Act is responsible for advising the Government on NREGP related matters and for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the Act. It is also mandated to prepare annual reports.

Two days before this meeting, another important forum "" the national advisory council also recommended the extension of the NREGP to the whole country, with invitee and former member Aruna Roy leading the discussion. Raja says if Rahul Gandhi's memorandum can solve things like this, then Gandhi should take up other issues as well.

About 80 per cent of the children below the age of three are anaemic and the Governemnt is yet to take up the matter through the Integrated Child Services Programme and its network of anganwadis, says Raja.

She says, a team of activists including her had received assurance from the Prime Minister in December on this, including a promised meeting with all chief ministers. But nothing has happened so far. Maybe Rajul should take this up, says Raja.

Also,on her wishlist for Rahul Gandhi is the Women's Reservation Bill. Maybe he could make it happen too, she adds.