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Rural Employment Guarantee Bill introduced in Parliament

	August 22, 2005

Honouring one of the key promises made in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), the UPA Government introduced the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill in Parliament last week. It aims to provide 100 days of guaranteed employment to one person in each rural household in 200 districts of the country, to begin with. The amended Bill, examined by the Parliamentary standing Committee, headed by Kalyan Singh of the BJP, was moved in the Lok Sabha by Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh. It got support from across the political spectrum. The Prime Minister described the social security measure as a historic Bill aimed at banishing poverty through assured employment.

The Bill figured in the election manifesto of the Congress and also the Common Minimum Programme drawn up when the UPA assumed power.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi who took part in the discussion on the Bill said that it would provide a better life to the unemployed in the rural areas. This was her first speech in the present Lok Sabha and the second since August 2003 when she moved a motion of no confidence against the then Vajpayee Government.

Reports say that the Government conceded half-a-dozen major demands of the Left while drawing up the Bill. The Group of Ministers examining the Bill and the Left leaders hammered out a consensus that the minimum wage fixed would not be less Rs. 60 per day. The Government also conceded the Left demand that the scheme’s coverage be extended to the whole of India in five years.

The BJP has demanded that the Employment Guarantee Scheme should be extended to urban areas also.



Strategic sale in PSUs shelved

The Manmohan Singh Government has called off the strategic sale of stake in 13 profit-making public sector undertakings such as HPCL, NALCO, Shipping Corporation of India and National Fertilizers. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the strategic sale in PSUs is not the right option. He said the Government may consider the public offer route to sell minority stakes in PSUs.

Observers say that the Government decision is partly a response to Left pressure for abandoning disinvestment in profitable PSUs.



Left parties still out of coordination committee

The Left parties have indicated that they are ready to return to the UPA-Left Coordination Committee provided the Government comes out formally that it will not divest its stake in profitable public sector undertakings, specially, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL). CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan told newspersons, “We can participate in the Coordination Committee, but not before the Government makes a formal statement that it would not divest its stake in BHEL and other Navratnas.”

Reports say that the Government and the Left are moving towards ending the Left boycott of the Coordination Committee. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has been asked to persuade the Left to revive the coordination committee. He has been in touch with CPI and CPI(M) leaders.



Law planned to undo Supreme Court verdict on reservation

The Manmohan Singh Government has indicated that it would consider among other things, a piece of legislation to provide reservation in unaided private higher educational institutions before the next academic year. The law is expected to be in place before the Supreme Court verdict doing away with such reservations comes into force. Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh told the Lok Sabha on August 17 that the issue would be discussed at an all party meeting on Tuesday, August 23. It will be followed by a meeting of State Ministers in-charge of Professional Education on August 27. He was replying to a calling attention motion on the situation arising out of the Supreme Court verdict on August 12, ruling that the policy of reservation cannot be enforced by the State in private unaided institutions. The court said that this was necessary to check encroachment on the rights and autonomy of private professional educational institutions.

A seven-judge of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti had held that reservations for backward classes is contrary to merit.

“The State cannot insist on private educational institutions which receive no aid from the State to implement State’s policy on reservation for granting admission on lesser percentage of marks, i.e. on any criterion except merit,” the bench ruled.

By referring to it as a threat to merit, the apex court has, however, unwittingly, put a question mark on the validity of the very policy of extending reservations in educational institutions, whether government or private, aided or unaided, minority, or non-minority.

The maximum opposition to the supreme court verdict came from the southern states, especially Tamil Nadu. But the ruling party and the DMK-led opposition parties in the state oppose the apex court’s ban on quota in private educational institutions. The state government even threatened to take over private colleges to ensure that reservation continue in private institutions.