NEW DELHI : Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said UPA's flagship rural employment guarantee programme has the potential to set off a second green revolution as it can boost agricultural production.
Speaking at a conference on the Mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee act here, she said "I am of the belief that MNREGA has tremendous potential to increase agriculture production, which we have not been able to tap fully till date."
Sonia said that "There are many possibilities not only for creating community assets in villages but also providing irrigation facilities to small and marginalised farmers, developing land and promoting farming."
Although the MNREGA scheme has been found to suffer from implementation problems, the Congress chief saw the programme being overall beneficial to the farmers.
"Manifold increase in the produce of farmers can be made by connecting this scheme with the use of modern technologies in agriculture. There is no doubt that MNREGA can play a big role in fulfilling our dreams of second green revolution," she said.
At the same conference, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said use of Information Technology in at many levels has helped making governance better and increase accountability and transparency in government work. He said the act has increased financial inclusion.
Singh called on the rural development ministry to work with states to ensure panchayats are provided full technical assistance.
"This will help prepare the labour budget truly as per the local development plan and will facilitate the inclusion of all possible resources. Besides, this will also strengthen the Panchyati Raj institutions and increase people's participation in development works," Singh said.
The Congress president also said, "there is also a need to think how to make implementation better. How to bring momentum in the empowerment of Panchayati Raj institutions."
Rural job plan can start green revolution II: Sonia
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Rural job plan can start green revolution II: Sonia
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Rural job plan can start green revolution II: Sonia
