Close on the heels of Congress president Sonia Gandhi exhorting party members to act as “guardians of NREGA” in the August edition of party mouthpiece Congress Sandesh, Rural Development Minister C P Joshi has packed the apex body monitoring the implementation of UPA government’s flagship National Rural Job Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) with his partymen, edging out the original architects of the scheme.

The Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC), the apex body under the NREG Act to monitor the implementation of the scheme, has six sitting Congress MPs, one ex-MP of the party and another Congress functionary from UP who heads the party’s NREGA cell in UP.

“There have been some complaints about the implementation of NREGA. I call on you all to be the ‘guardians of NREGA’, ensuring that people get due access to employment through NREGA, as well the fair wage that they are entitled to. We must ensure that this scheme does not fall victim to corrupt and inflexible bureaucratic practices,” Sonia wrote in her letter to party workers in the August edition of Congress Sandesh.

Eight of the 14 Congress-affliated non-official members of the CEGC nominated by Joshi, who will officially act as ‘guardians’ of the scheme as members of CEGC , are:

•n Sandeep Dikshit, MP from Delhi

•n Narayan Singh Amlabe, MP from Madhya Pradesh

•n Bhakta Charan Das, MP from Orissa

•n M I Shanavas, MP from Kerala

•n Ranee Narah, MP from Assam

•n Pradeep Manjhi, MP from Orissa

... contd.