The Hindu : Front Page : Sonia seeks NGOs help in development

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 26, 2006
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Sonia seeks NGOs help in development

Special Correspondent

Lauds role of Rajiv Gandhi in granting more powers, funds for PR bodies

TIRUPATI: UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has asked voluntary bodies like Non-Governmental Organisations and Self-Help Groups to become partners in development and take forward the new initiatives of the UPA Government in this direction.

Addressing the annual summit of the `Akhil Bharat Rachanatmaka Samaj'— a confederation of voluntary organisations— at the SV University stadium here on Saturday, Ms. Sonia Gandhi said that the credit for devolving more powers and funds to Panchayat Raj bodies must go to late Rajiv Gandhi.

But for his `vision and untiring efforts' it would not have become a reality today, she said. It was Rajiv who made the Constitution reflect the new contours of the PR bodies, she said.

The UPA Chairperson regretted that despite the stringent laws brought about by Rajiv's regime, atrocities against the dalits and women still continued.

Though India was emerging as a strong nation in economic and industrial fronts, rather regrettably hygiene and sanitation still remained a far cry. The `degrading occupation' of manual scavenging was still being continued .

All these were the areas where the NGOs and the SHGs could join hands with the Government in sensitising the target groups against the evils and also in making the benefits of the social security schemes effectively reach them, she said.

Ms. Gandhi pointed out that she was happy that the agenda the summit had set before itself for deliberations was not only close to her heart but also the priorities of the UPA Government.

She cited in this connection various Government schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the Right to Information Act (RTA), job schemes for the dalits and women and so on, and called for an active Government-NGOs interface so that not only an effective social audit of the schemes was ensured but the gaps in the implementation mechanism also were bridged.

Governor Rameshwar Thakur, who presided over the function, said that like Mahatma Gandhi and Vinobha Bhave, who inspired people with their ideological pursuits, Ms. Sonia Gandhi also was carrying forward her mission with the same spirit.

YSR hails `sacrifice'

Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy said the 'sacrifice' Ms. Sonia Gandhi made when the Prime Minister's post was offered to her on a platter was `matchless' in the contemporary political history.

Eulogising her sense of sacrifice, Dr. Reddy said that her `amazing gesture' proved to the country that she did not believe in mere rhetoric but in actual practice when it came to making sacrifices.

Earlier Nirmala Deshpande, MP, president of the samaj, welcomed the delegates, including some from the South Asian countries also. G. Munirathnam, general secretary of the Rashtriya Seva Samithi (RASS), Tirupati, which is hosting the meet, presented a report.

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