Monitor drought, NREG scheme: Sonia to party

Party president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday asked the Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs), District Congress Committees (DCCs) and Block Congress Committees (BCCs) to monitor the government’s drought-management measures as well as the implementation of the NREG.

Speaking at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), she also asked the party workers to utilise the RTI Act to keep a watch on the implementation of the NREG programme and other welfare schemes.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Rural Development Minister C P Joshi and chief ministers of 10 of the 12 Congress-ruled states attended the meeting convened to discuss drought and price rise.
As reports from some states indicated poor performance of the NREG programme in certain pockets and hinted that benefits of drought-relief measures were not reaching the affected people pouring in from some states, the CWC engaged the party machinery to “make people aware of their entitlements and ensuring they get access to their due entitlements”.

The highest policy making body of the party advised the local units to regularly report to the All India Congress Committee general secretaries in charge of the respective states about implementation of the government’s programmes and suggest additional steps that needed to be undertaken in the drought-hit districts.