The UPA Government extended its flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) to all rural districts in the country on Friday, just two days after a high profile Congress delegation that included newly appointed AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take this a decision.

The Prime Minister’s media advisor Sanjaya Baru formally disclosed the Government’s decision on Friday morning, stating that the decision was made at a meeting held by Prime Minister and attended by Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.

On the face of it, it appeared  that the Prime Minister had quickly responded to the request of the Rahul-included Congress delegation’s request on Wednesday. However, facts are to the contrary.

It appeared that the Congress delegation had prior information about the impending decision because Mr Chidambaram has been outside  India for several days now. Obviously, the meeting where the decision was taken, had occurred quite some time back, with a possible snap poll in Lok Sabha as its compelling political backdrop.

According to the informed sources, a decision at the official level on extending NREGS to the remaining 250 rural districts in the country was taken in the first week of September, at a meeting attended by senior officials from Planning Commission, Prime Minister’s Office, Finance and Rural Development ministries.

Of the 580 rural districts where the scheme is applicable, it is already applicable to 330 districts of which 130 districts were added last April to the initial 200 districts, where the scheme was first launched in February, 2006.

Following this meeting, the sources suggested that the Prime Minister took the ministerial meeting where the decision was finalised.

Further, the Rural Development Ministry has already prepared a cabinet note for inclusion of the 250 rural districts under the scheme. The sources said that the cabinet note was sent to the cabinet secretariat for inclusion in the agenda for a cabinet meeting that was expected on September 20.

However, the cabinet did not meet that day as the Prime Minister was indisposed. In fact, the cabinet also skipped its weekly meeting on Thursday since the Prime Minister is still recuperating after the prostrate surgery.

Notwithstanding the announcement of extending the scheme to the remaining 250 districts, it is most unlikely to be implemented before the start of the next financial year in April, 2008. The sources said that the meetings where the decision was taken did not go into its financial implications. The Finance Minister has not made any budgetary provisions in his last budget either.