Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday praised the Congress-led coalition for launching the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREG) three years ago. He, however, asked the states lagging behind in its scheme’s implementation to buck up.
“Some states have shown good results. Some are lagging behind. I urge the states that have been left behind to make all efforts to catch up with the more progressive ones,” the PM said at a workshop organised by the National Legal Services Authority on supporting the NREG scheme through the Legal Services Authority in the states. He, however, did not name the states.
Early this month, Planning Commission’s deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia had named Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh as the states that have done well. Three of these states are being ruled by the BJP.
Singh also emphasised on improving the scheme’s evaluating mechanism for the scheme since a faulty design could derail the initiative.