Congress president Sonia Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Congress president and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Thursday described the tabling of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill in the Lok Sabha as a "historic occasion."

Taking the floor soon after Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kalyan Singh initiated the discussion, Ms. Gandhi took 20 minutes to highlight the features of the social security measure, its background, and how it would provide a better life to the unemployed in rural areas. This was her first speech in the present Lok Sabha and second since August 2003 when she moved a no-confidence motion against the Vajpayee Government.

Charge against NDA

A brief sparring between Ms. Gandhi and the Opposition took place when she charged that the National Democratic Alliance Government did not heed the pleas for help by Congress-ruled States hit by drought even when the granaries were overflowing.

The Bill, she said, was drafted after extensive consultations and it drew from the employment guarantee scheme introduced by the Congress in Maharashtra in the 1970s. Some studies showed that 40 to 50 per cent of those who benefited from the scheme were women and that the implementation improved their lives.

Lack of infrastructure

Anyone who lived in or travelled extensively through rural India would be aware that a large number of people were desperately in need of work and that infrastructure was lacking. "Through this landmark legislation we will be addressing both issues and bring about fundamental changes in our villages, where two out of every three of our countrymen and women live. Through this legislation, we will deliver to them what is their right, their entitlement — guaranteed employment, so that they can live a better life."

Highlighting three aspects of the legislation, Ms. Gandhi said elected panchayats were given a pivotal role and the programme would lead to their financial and administrative empowerment. It went beyond the traditional civil works to include watershed development, renovation of waterbodies, desilting of tanks, afforestation and wasteland restoration. For the first time, irrigation works could be taken up on land owned by the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

The Bill prohibited engaging contractors.

"Greater accountability"

The Bill would have to been seen against the background of the improved Right to Information Act, which would enable social audits and greater public scrutiny of the programme.

"It will ensure greater accountability of panchayat bodies and the district administration as well. For example, muster rolls will no longer be secret, and budget and works will be public knowledge. All this will ensure that only those who really need work will be employed, and only those schemes required by the community are taken up."

On criticism of the financial implications of the Bill, Ms. Gandhi said an economy that was growing at 7 per cent a year could and should find the resources for such "crucial intervention."

It was time to effect fundamental changes in government expenditure to support the larger social goals better.

Pointing out that she had implicit faith in the Bill, she said: "Our programmes do not always work out the way they are planned. The benefits do not always reach the poor. Delivery systems claim too large a share of the outlays. Above all, we should rid ourselves of the sab chalta hai attitude."

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