Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday launched the 'historic' National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme aimed at providing right to legal livelihood to the rural poor.
"We must tirelessly work to ensure that the benefit of the scheme reaches to the needy people," he said launching the programme in Bandlapally Gram Panchayat in Anantpur district of Andhra Pradesh.
Terming the programme 'revolutionary,' Singh said: "The main focus of the scheme was the poorest of the poor."
The prime minister appealed to the state government to work together in close coordination so that the benefits of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme reached the targetted groups.
Singh said if implemented properly, the programme would check migration of people in search of work and remove a sense of despair.
"The NREG has the clearest focus on the rural poor. It will help those under pressure to migrate elsewhere in search of work. It will also help us get rid of the scourge of poverty," he said.
The scheme guarantees 100 days of employment in a financial year to every rural household and provides a social safety net for the vulnerable groups besides providing an opportunity to combine growth with equity.
Under the scheme, the gram panchayat after proper verification will register households and issue job cards to registered households.
The job card is the legal document that entitles a person to ask for work under the Act and to get work within 15 days of the demand for work, failing which Unemployment Allowance would be payable.
Singh said the NREG was a "significant legislation of our times" that makes "our government responsible and accountable" to give employment to the rural poor.
"We must ensure full transparency and accountability in implementing the Act," he said, adding that the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women would benefit most from the programme.
He said though the nation had made progress in many sectors, several people were still plagued with age-old problems like poverty, which the NREG would help eradicate.
Maintaining that the gram sabhas would play an active role in implementing the programme, the Prime Minister said the 'historic' Right To Information (RTI) Act should be used to ensure total transparency.
Singh said all work sites should present reports on the implementation of the programme to the public. "If used effectively, these provisions will ensure a corruption free scheme," he said.
Earlier, United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi urged the people to actively participate in the scheme and check any wrong doings in it.
She said any scheme, however good it may be, could not succeed until people actively participated in it. "I look forward to your cooperation in this programme."
"Using the RTI Act, one can seek any document regarding the scheme. When there is fear of truth being revealed, it will reduce corruption," Gandhi said.
She said gram panchayats and gram sabhas had an important role in the scheme as it was they who decided allocation of works under the programme.
