The Government said here today that it has written to the Election Commission asking it not to halt the implementation of programmes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme under the model code of conduct for elections.

“The EC has conceded some (points),” Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh told the Lok Sabha during Question Hour, adding “there is no full agreement yet.” He was replying to a supplementary put by RJD member Raghunath Jha, who complained of the scheme being halted due to various elections and by-elections. The point made by him immediately drew support from no one else than Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

Singh said in reply to the questions raised by Nikhil Kumar and P C Thomas that some states like Bihar, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Meghalaya were lagging behind in the implementation of employment guarantee scheme because of Assembly and other polls.

The minister said the Centre was keen that those who were below the poverty line were provided job cards fast. He said training programmes sponsored by the Centre had been launched at the panchayat level to implement the scheme. The Planning Commission, according to him, was still to finalise the names of the districts to be covered in the second phase of the programme.