New Delhi, October 02: The Centre’s flagship National Rural Employment Gurantee Act will be named after Mahatma Gandhi.
An announcement to this effect is expected to be made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow on the occassion of Gandhi Jayanti.
A decision to name NREGA after Mahatma Gandhi was taken at a meeting of the union cabinet today.
Government sources said the cabinet has given in- principle approval to the move and a Bill is likely to be brought in the winter session of Parliament which is expected to begin in the second week of next month.
Sources said that henceforth the Act is likely to be known as Mahatma National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA).
NREGA is one of flagship programmes of the Congress-led UPA government in its first term and its scope, which was earlier limited to 200 districts, has been extended to cover the entire country.
Prime Minister is going to Rajasthan tomorrow where he is to commemorate the completion of 50 years of panchayati raj.
A national convention has also organised here by the Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj to commemorate the completion of 50 years of panchayati raj. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who had taken the initiative in bringing NREGA, will address the convention.
During the convention, those elected representatives of panchayats who have served for more than 25 years will be honoured.
The ministry claims positive trends have been noted in four years of implementation of NREGA.
Under the Act, 4.5 crore rural households were provided employment and 216.01 crore persondays were generated during the financial year 2008-09.
In the current financial year till July, 2.53 crore households have been provided work and 87.09 crore persondays have been generated, according to an assessment done by the ministry.
According to the ministry, NREGA has provided employment, particularly to marginalised groups, with the participation percentage of the members of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe being 55 per cent during 2008-09 and 53 per cent in the current fiscal upto July this year.
Women’s participation has surpassed the statutory minimum limit of 33 per cent.
In the financial year 2008-09, the percentage of women taking up work under NREGA was 48 and in the current fiscal, women’s participation has been recorded at about 52 percent.
–Agencies