Government said on Thursday effective implementation of its pet three-year-old flagship national project to guarantee rural employment was proving to be a 'challenge' amid 'doubts' whether it was giving the desired results.
Watched by AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi who is in the forefront to ensure that United Progressive Alliance's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is a success, Rural Development Minister C P Joshi said, "Everywhere, including in Parliament, there are doubts in everybody's mind that the way in which NREGA should function, is not happening."
"Job cards are not reaching the beneficiaries, sarpanches are supposed to make plans but that is not happening and funds for material components are not being used properly," he said addressing a workshop on NREGA in New Delhi.
Joshi said it is a challenge to ensure that NREGA is implemented in a manner in which legislations are implemented and not as a scheme.
Rahul, a strong votary for NREGA, was the chief guest in the workshop but did not address the gathering.
"I would like to assure that NREGA will become the new governing model in rural India. We strive for transparency and will work to instil confidence in the poor, so that he realises that he is the real beneficiary of NREGA,"Joshi said.
Joshi said his ministry will strive to provide 100 days of employment under NREGA, ensure timely payment of wages to job card holders and also address the issue of uneven performances of states.
"The proposal of setting up an ombudsman to monitor its functioning would also be finalised soon and we will also see that NREGA is also implemented on a mission mode."
Increase number of days of work, says minister: According to another report from Jaipur, leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly Vasundhara Raje asked the government on Thursday to increase the number of days of work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act from the present 100 days to a complete year.
Addressing villagers at Bidiyad and Borawad villages in Nagaur district, Raje demanded the government increase the number of days of work under NREGA to 365 days for relief to villagers.
She also criticised the Congress government in the state for power cuts. "This is first time in the history of Rajasthan that power cuts last 16 hours at various places and villages where electricity was supplied for 20 hours like urban areas during the BJP rule are getting hardly four hours power supply," she said.
