The Hindu Business Line : Cabinet okays employment guarantee Bill

THE Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the introduction of the proposed National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill and the Right to Information Bill during the current session of the Parliament, the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Mr Jaipal Reddy, told reporters here.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill aims to enhance livelihood security to poor households in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to every poor household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual labour.

However, the total expenditure on this account would "depend on the rollout of the scheme," the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, told after the meeting.

The new Right to Information Bill would be more progressive, participatory and meaningful than the earlier Freedom of Information Act, 2002, the Minister said.

The Cabinet also cleared a Bill to amend the Hindu Succession Act 1950 to provide for equal right to daughters in family property. The Bill will be introduced in the current session of the Parliament.

Mr Reddy told newsmen after the Cabinet meeting that the enactment of the proposed legislation would remove certain discriminatory provisions in law discriminating women in the matter of Hindu Mitakshara coparcenary property. "The Bill seeks to provide for daughters getting as much right as sons from the ancestral property," Mr Reddy said, pointing out that the present Act did not accord full right to daughters.

The Minister said the proposed amendment to the Hindu Succession Act meant implementation of 174th Report of the Law Commission of India on `Property Rights of Women: Proposed reform under the Hindu Law.'

The proposed Patent Amendment Bill 2004, which was in the additional agenda, did not come up for discussion.

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