NEW DELHI: The Centre proposes to provide a compulsory insurance cover to those employed under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said on Tuesday.

Talking to reporters at the conclusion of a two-day conference of Project Directors of the District Rural Development Agencies (DRDA) here, Mr. Singh said the Ministry has held discussion on the issue with several insurance companies and the proposal was being finalised. Over 1.25 crore people have received employment under the scheme.

The Minister also said that the Ministry was in favour of improving the impact of rural development programmes on women for which registration of all women-headed households should be given top priority under the wage employment programmes like the NREGA and the Sampoorna Gram Rozgar Yojana. He said women should have access to their wages under the NREGA when paid through banks or post officeaccounts in the name of the households or have separate accounts if she enrolled herself.

Mr. Singh said he had also taken up the issue of zero lending banks with the Union Finance Ministry to link these banks with the Self Help Groups and provide loans to these cooperatives for self employment. He said non-bank areas and low performance banks would also be linked under the scheme. "There are 23 lakh SHGs that can be linked to various banks for obtaining loans for self employment. My aim is to have at least one person from a family associated with a SHG,'' Mr. Singh said.

The conference concluded with the recommendation of a higher allocation by the Centre for housing for the poor and a more proactive policy by the States for marketing of products of rural artisans and wage employment. It favoured the involvement of the corporate sector in providing housing to for the poor and adequate subsidy on the loan interest.

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