Congress President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi today
said that Congress-led UPA Government’s flagship employment guarantee scheme-
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA)- can play a big
role to usher in second green revolution in India. It also can increase
agricultural production, said Sonia Gandhi.
While addressing the 8th MNREGA Sammelan in New
Delhi, the Congress President said, "I am of the belief that MNREGA has
tremendous potential to increase agriculture production, which we have not been
able to tap fully till date. There are many possibilities not only for creating
community assets in villages but also providing irrigation facilities to small
and marginalised farmers, developing land and promoting farming”.
Sonia Gandhi continued, "Manifold increase in the
produce of farmers can be made by connecting this scheme with the use of modern
technologies in agriculture. There is no doubt that MNREGA can play a big role
in fulfilling our dreams of second green revolution."
She also warned regarding the challenges in the
implementation of MNREGA and said, "We frequently hear complaints of
corruption and misutilisation of funds in this scheme. It is very essential to
put a check on this" and added, “The government will take steps to reduce
its shortcomings through the tools of modern communication and information”.
Sonia Gandhi also maintained it was necessary that social audits happened timely
and according to norms.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh inaugurated the conference.
In his opening address Dr Singh said 30 new works have already been added to
the list of works permitted under MNREGA, whose focus is by and large on
providing employment in rural areas mainly through agriculture. Apart from
direct financial benefit, the scheme has given many indirect benefits to the
people and brought down the migration graph, he said.
