The success of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) may be a matter of debate, but it has certainly projected Congress President Sonia Gandhi as a 'job provider'.
The long queue of job seekers outside the grievance cell at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi, supervised by Sonia's confidante Archana Dalmiya, is a testimony to this new image of the Congress president.
They are not seeking relief through the NREGS, though. All they want is a letter of recommendation from this cell to Union ministers, chief ministers, district collectors, et al.
Many of these letters do turn out to be as good as appointment letters -- a number of temporary employees at the NDMC could swear by it, and so will many others who have got even permanent jobs, say, for instance, the lady who recently got a permanent job in the ministry of social justice. The Congress president is kept updated about the progress on all these applications.
Almost half of about 60 to 70 applicants who come to this cell daily are job seekers. A look at a randomly selected 150 applications (last September) shows 62 job seekers.
Other applications pertain to a variety of subjects ranging from complaints about eve teasing (against a Congressman in Delhi) to digging of a tubewell to transfers-and-postings.
A number of people also come here to seek financial assistance for medical problems. Dalmiya told Business Standard that the cell was able to achieve definite results in almost 60 per cent of the cases.
One of the applicants, Bharat Bharti from Sangeet Bhawan, Patna, wanted the Congress president's help in getting the job of a singer. His letter was forwarded to the ministry of information and broadcasting, which declined any help contending that the film industry was completely in private sector.
Some time back, a lady from Srinagar had met Sonia seeking some help for self-employment. Thanks to the Congress president's intervention, the Jammu and Kashmir government provided her a computer.
The father of a 13-year-old blind boy from Kota in Rajasthan had approached the cell recently as he could not afford to bear the cost of the operation. The cell got in touch with the AIIMS superintendent and his eyes were operated upon free of cost.
Now the boy can see enough to move around on his own, recounted Manish Chatrath who, along with Dalmiya, works overtime to attend to the hordes of applicants.
Last week, a delegation of handicapped people approached the Congress president with the application that they should be given more than four attempts in Civil Services examination. There are many people who seek Sonia's intervention in getting ration cards, pension, etc. Archana Dalmiya says the grievance cell tries to help all these people "because the Congress party stands for 'aam admi'".