The government had planned to make the announcement during the Budget session but has now decided to advance it and give Rahul the credit for the scheme.
NEW DELHI: The government is pulling out all stops to ensure that Rahul Gandhi is projected as the heir apparent.
Barely two days after he led the newly-appointed AICC office bearers to meet the prime minister and presented a memorandum demanding that the National Rural Employee Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) be extended nationwide, Manmohan Singh readily obliged.
He chaired an emergency meeting of the finance minister, rural development minister and the member secretary planning commission and accepted the demand.
The government had planned to make the announcement during the Budget session but has now decided to advance it and give Rahul the credit for the scheme. Every effort is being made to build his profile and link him with pro-people measures.
Ever since Rahul took over as general secretary, the Congress has gone into an image building overdrive. Party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi was candid enough to admit that though the scheme was enacted as a part of the UPA's commitment to the common minimum programme (CMP), “it got new energy and momentum ever since Rahul Gandhi started taking interest”.
Even allies like the RJD have begun playing along. “It is great that Rahul is interested in helping the poor. Why should he not get credit for it?” Raghuvansh Pratap Singh, minister for rural development, told reporters.
The NREGS was launched in February last year. It was meant to cover 200 of the most backward districts and 130 more were added subsequently.
Sources say extending its coverage across all districts three years ahead of schedule comes at no extra cost to the exchequer at least during the current fiscal.
This is because, they add, it would take at least four months to operationalise the scheme. With its extension, the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojna being implemented in the non-NREGS districts will be discontinued.
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