Parties chew over Employment Bill in LS

Parties chew over Employment Bill in LS
PTI, August 18, 2005

New Delhi: A "historic" bill seeking to guarantee 100 days of employment to every rural household in a year was taken up for consideration in the Lok Sabha today with Congress president Sonia Gandhi asserting that the measure would fulfil one of the biggest promises made by her party in its election manifesto last year.

Members, cutting across party lines, welcomed by thumping of desks the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, 2004, as it was moved by Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh for consideration, after the government incorporated a number of amendments to the original legislation introduced in the House last year.

Declaring the UPA government's resolve to improve the lives of rural people, Gandhi said through the "historic measure we are starting to give them their right so that they have a better future".

However, BJP leader Kalyan Singh, who headed the standing committee that examined the bill, picked holes in the legislation, taking a dig at the Congress party saying after 50 years in power it had realised the need for such a law.

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