Not enough women, Sonia upset

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has her job cut out when it comes to ensuring that 33 per cent women get jobs under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in her Lok Sabha constituency, reports Umesh Raghuvanshi.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has her job cut out when it comes to ensuring that 33 per cent women get jobs under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in her Lok Sabha constituency.

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On Wednesday’s visit to Rae Bareli, Gandhi was upset to know that only 22 per cent women have been given jobs under the NREGA in her constituency. “Why only 22 per cent women have been given jobs?” asked Gandhi as she reviewed the progress at the District Vigilance and Monitoring Committee meeting.

At the meeting, Gandhi came across some hard facts about the implementation of the central schemes. “Why have you rejected 16,000 applications for issuance of job cards?” she asked.

According to District Magistrate Charanjeet Singh Bakshi the applications for job cards had been rejected because the applicant failed to collect them after submitting the applications.

“We will conduct an inquiry in at least one or two blocks. If the complaints were found correct we will expand the probe to other blocks as well,” he said. About 26,000 BPL families refusing to have a free power connection the district magistrate said he would conduct an inquiry into the issue.