Rahul Gandhi to visit village where MGNREGA was launched 10 years ago

As MGNREGA completes ten years on Tuesday, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi would interact with the rural job scheme's beneficiaries at the Andhra Pradesh village where the UPA government first launched the project.

Rahul would visit Bandlapalli village in Anantapur district, around 350km from here, where he will interact with wage workers, representatives of NGOs and Sarpanchs, and also have lunch with them.

"Rahul will interact with wage workers, some NGOs and Sarpanchs. He will have lunch with them before addressing a public meeting in the village," a Congress leader said.

"Will visit Bandlapalli, Anantapur on 2nd Feb to commemorate 10 yrs of MNREGA. It was from this village that Prime Minister Manmohan Singhji & Congress President Sonia Gandhiji in 2006 had launched the historic MNREGA," Rahul tweeted last week.

Gandhi and Singh had launched the scheme on February 2, 2006 (then covering 200 districts) to provide livelihood security to millions of poor in villages across the country.

The then UPA government had described it as "a landmark (programme) in our history in removing poverty from the face of the nation". The scheme, later extended country-wide, seeks to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a year.