In a clear sign of playing up the aam aadmi slogan in the politically-uncertain times as well as the pro-active role Rahul Gandhi would play in Congress, the newly-appointed AICC general secretary on Wednesday led a high-powered party delegation to the Prime Minister, demanding that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) be extended to cover rural areas of the whole country.
“Given the success of the programme in providing a social safety net for the rural poor, it is requested that the NREGA should be extended by the Government of India to the rural areas in all of the nearly 600 districts of the country in order to promote sustainable development and livelihood systems for the rural poor across the country,” a memorandum submitted by the delegation said.
While the memorandum was signed by general secretaries Rahul Gandhi, Ashok Gehlot, Janardan Dwivedi, Kishore Chandra Deo, Mukul Wasnik, Margaret Alva, Prithviraj Chavan, V Narayanaswamy, CWC permanent invitees Satyavrat Chaturvedi and V Arun Kumar, the delegation also comprised media committee chairman Veerappa Moily.
Official sources said the delegation discussed the expansion of the NREGA to uncovered areas of the country and mentioned that it was a landmark legislation of the UPA government, one of the important promises in the Congress manifesto and a key element of the National Common Minimum Programme of the UPA.
The delegation highlighted that the passage of the Act and its implementation in many parts had been widely welcomed across the country.
“For the first time, the poor people of the country have been given a legally enforceable right to get minimum employment for 100 days as the Act has provided relief to those in distress and made a significant difference to the lives of the rural poor who have used it to secure relief wherever they had no other source of livelihood,”the delegation told the Prime Minister.
“Expansion of the Act to cover the uncovered areas would be in the interest of the aam aadmi, ” it said.
Another son rises BJP youth wing gets new prez
New Delhi, dhns: BJP President Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj Singh has been made president of the party’s Uttar Pradesh youth wing.
UP BJP President Ramapati Ram Tripathi made the announcement on Tuesday at Lucknow. Incidentally, Rahul Gandhi took over as the AICC General Secretary here on the same day. The UP BJP president, known to be close to the party’s national president, inducted Mr Pankaj as chief of the youth wing.
