Redouble drought efforts: PM

In this context,he also pointed toward “uneven performance” of several states in the implementation of rural job guarantee scheme NREGS and asked them to pull up their socks to provide a safety net to the poor during this crisis.

“The performance of the programme as I have mentioned,has been uneven across states. Some states have shown good results. Some are lagging behind. I urge them to catch up,” the PM said,invoking Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s analyses while describing NREGS as an important mechanism to help rural poor in time of crisis.

“I think Dr Amartya Sen has repeatedly emphasised that famines are not necessarily famines of deficient production but of deficient purchasing power and for the first time in our history we have an opportunity to put purchasing power in the hands of most needy parts of our population through the mechanisms of National Rural Employment Guarantee programme,” Singh said.

He also advised the state Rural Development ministers to learn from the best practice in implementation of rural welfare programmes in recent past and “reform” the implementation of the programme.

“There are success stories,there are indifferent performances in some parts of our country and the time has come when we should draw correct lessons from this experience of past five years to put in place a reform programme which meets the legitimate aspirations of our rural population,” he said.

The Prime Minister also suggested collective action from central as well as state governments in implementing the National Rural Livelihood Mission,which has been restructured from the earlier programme on self-employment generation (SGSY),to provide a kind of employment assurance to rural poor through skill development and promotion of self-employment.

Singh also underlined the need for effective monitoring of anti-poverty programmes to benefit the rural poor. “Allocations for poverty alleviation programmes are rising every year. We have now to ensure that our people get the best value for every rupee spent on their behalf. Effective oversight of these programmes is therefore,extremely important,” he said. Singh also pointed to the setting up of a Delivery Monitoring Unit at the Prime Minister’s Office to monitor the flagship projects that include anti-poverty programmes like NREGS.