NAC members upset over jobs Bill

Some members of the National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by Sonia Gandhi, and the UPA government, appear to be on a collision course when it comes to the National Employment Gurantee Bill, with NAC members Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze preparing to go public with the way the Centre has "diluted" the draft proposed by the NAC.

The duo, along with Left party leaders D Raja, Sitaram Yechury and former Prime Minister VP Singh will be making their differences with the government known on the issue on Tuesday at a press conference. Raja confirmed that he and other Left leaders have reservations about the draft of the Employment Bill circulated by the government.

According to Vijay Nagaraj of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), the organisation represented by Roy, the draft government legislation has significantly diluted the provisions made by the NAC, when they sent the Bill for consideration.

Jean Dreze and Roy, who are credited with drafting the original proposed Bill, he says, were shocked to see that several provisions, like the fact that the Bill was to be enforced for the whole country has been diluted to "as and when and where the government decides and for a specific length of time".

Thus, the fate of what was supposed to be a Bill empowering the jobless, will be dependent on government whim.

According to sources within the Rural Development Ministry, which will be implementing the Act, a fight has broken out between the minister, Raghuvansh Prasad, and Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahlu-walia over the minimum wage gaurantee to be given as dole.

"The Rural Development Minister was keen that the state-imposed minimum wage be applied as dole, while the Finance Minister and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission said that a common minimum wage for the entire country be approved, for the sake of controlling the spiralling costs of the programme," said the source.

The Bill was to be presented in the Winter Session of Parliament, but not before the state governments, which have to implement it on the ground, have been taken into confidence.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is of the view that the states should be given at least 15 days' notice after they have been shown the Bill for it to be presented in the House. All this means that it is highly unlikely that the Bill will see the light of day in the brief Winter Session.

The National Employment Guarantee Act was one of the first promises of the UPA government's Common Minimum Programme (CMP), but it seems to have fallen prey to the alliance's inner contradictions.