Date:22/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/12/22/stories/2004122202060400.htm

Back Job guarantee Bill introduced in Parliament

Our Bureau

New Delhi , Dec. 21

THE Government on Tuesday tabled in the Lok Sabha the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, 2004.

The Bill seeks to provide every poor household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work not less than 100 days of such work in a financial year in accordance with the scheme decided by the Government.

It also provides for unemployment allowance in case jobs are not provided to the applicants.

It says that if an applicant for employment under the scheme is not provided such employment within 15 days of receipt of his application seeking employment or from the date on which the employment has been sought in the case of an advance application, which ever is later, he shall be entitled to a daily unemployment allowance.

The Bill also proposes to set up a Central Employment Guarantee Council that would be the implementing and monitoring authority for the various provisions under this rule.

The state governments, too, will have to set up their respective State Employment Guarantee Councils.

For every block, the state government will appoint a programme officer for implementing the schemes under this Bill.

Meanwhile, the main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) complained that the provisions of the Bill have been diluted considerably and it is a great betrayal to the people.

The BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman, Mr Vijay Malhotra, said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) parties had promised one job for each family when they were not in power and were now talking of providing jobs only in rural areas, that too in 150 districts of the country.

The Left parties have also demanded that the Bill be sent to the select committee for proper debate.

"The Left Parties' demand is that the Employment Guarantee Bill be sent to the Select Committee to ensure that the content which was originally mooted is retained," the CPI(M) Lok Sabha Deputy Leader, Mr Basudeb Acharya, said here.

He said the Bill must not be linked to other existing schemes.

It should also encompass both rural and urban areas to guarantee 100 days of employment a year to at least one person from each family.

"Our apprehension is that the provisions for employment guarantee may be diluted by linking it to other rural development schemes. For this reason, we want a joint Select Committee to go through it before legislation," he said.

Mr Acharya said a Select Committee and not a Standing Committee would be able to concentrate on a particular subject and come back to Parliament with its recommendations in the first week of the next session.

The Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, also urged that the controversial Bill be referred to a Select Committee for improvement as around 200 mass organisations staged a demonstration near Parliament and displayed banners containing 100,000 signatures demanding adoption of a full-fledged Act.