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Employment guarantee bill to be introduced in winter session

Here are two items of interest on the recent developments on the EGA. The first is a report on the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) website and the second is a news item from the NDTV website.

EGA and the Planning Commission

The Planning Commission has recently reviewed two drafts of the Employment Guarantee Act and submitted its observations to the Prime Minister’s Office. Going by these confidential notes, the Commission doesn’t recommend the Act to be placed before the cabinet. It is clear that the Commission is being cautious, given the budgetary supports for other promises made in the common minimum programme (CMP). Moreover, it also feels that ecological issues should feature prominently in the programme. Read the observations:

Link to the full text of the Planning Commission document available on the CSE website:


Employee Guarantee Bill to be introduced in Winter Session
NDTV Correspondent

Friday, November 26, 2004 (New Delhi):

The UPA Coordination Committee tonight decided that a bill on National Employment Guarantee Programme will be introduced in the forthcoming winter session of Parliament.

It also decided to set up a sub-committee on the issue of a separate Telangana state.

The nearly two-and-a-half hour meeting was chaired by UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, HRD Minister Arjun Singh, Sharad Pawar (NCP), Ramvilas Paswan (Lok Janshakti), C Rajeshwar Rao (TRS), Mehbooba Mufti (PDP) and Lalu Prasad (RJD), Sibu Soren (JMM), R S Gavai (RPI-G) and Ramdas Athawale (RPI-G) also attended the meeting.

The National Employment Guarantee Programme, outlined in the Common Minimum Programme of the UPA, envisages 100 days of employment to one member of each family in rural areas through food-for-work and similar programmes.

Asked from where the government would mobilise resources for the employment programme, the Finance Minister said the Bill will be introduced, debated and also passed and the Centre would "find the money".