NEW DELHI: Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh on Thursday said he would take up with the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister the issue of expansion of the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) Scheme if the Planning Commission raised any objection to funding.

He had written to its Deputy Chairman for identification of more districts to be included in the second phase of the scheme. The Ministry required three or four months to prepare for the formal launch.

However, "The Planning Commission raised some queries such as the utilisation of funds and the criteria for choosing the districts but said the second phase was under serious consideration," Mr. Singh said. All rural districts had to be covered under the scheme in five years.

Mr. Singh was talking to reporters here, after reviewing for two days the performance of States in the implementation of rural development programmes.

Addressing State secretaries, he emphasised the need for muster roll verification and awareness generation.

The districts where the NREG scheme implementation was not up to the desired level were identified for intensive information intervention at the local level.

So far, 3.34-crore job cards had been issued and 1.36 crore households, representing 25.17 per cent of rural households, demanded employment.

Works related to water

Under the scheme, 1.87 lakh works had been completed and 3.36 lakh works were in progress. More than 50 per cent of the works related to water.

To promote marketing infrastructure for rural products, outlets should be established in the State capitals and other important cities.

A Rural Products Marketing Agency should be set up in due course, and each district should prepare a compendium of the products, along with an account of quality and quantity, manufactured by the rural poor, the Minister said.

He asked the Secretaries to ensure full utilisation of funds under the rural development schemes.

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