The Hindu Business Line : When electors and elected changed roles

FOR a change, the elected and the electors changed roles. Bemused, the former watched the latter discussing and passing a plan of works for their village at the Grama Sabha (village assembly) here on Thursday.

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson, Ms Sonia Gandhi, Union Ministers Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, parliamentarians and the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, watched the proceedings with utmost attention. There were no acrimonious scenes. When the discussions concluded, the Sabha passed a plan to take up 208 works with an outlay of Rs 1.12 crore, with all of the 500 members saying `ye' by raising their hands.

The sabha went on so well that Ms Sonia Gandhi kept on asking the District Collector Ms Anuradha to translate the statements being made by the villagers during the discussion.

They were discussing a plan of developmental works to be taken up during the year under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) launched by Dr Manmohan Singh and Ms Sonia Gandhi in this remote and perennially drought prone village of Anantapur district.

The scheme ensured 100 days of employment to each family that secured a job-card. Of a total of 713 families, 492 would get these cards.

Mr Narayana Reddy, the sarpanch, had initiated the discussion, listing the main problems of the village. "People have no works in the village as there has been no rains for the last five, six years," he said, inviting his deputy, Mr Ramana Reddy, to explain further. "Our village has no tanks or canals. No rain means no crops and no work for labourers. We (the farmers) ourselves have no work to do. How can we fed the labourers?" he wondered.

Then, referring to the just-launched NREGS, he proposed to take up some works for the current year. The list included water protection works and plantation of saplings.

Ms Bharati, a villager, said if the scheme were implemented in true spirit it would help arrest migration from the village.

"About 400 families had migrated from the village due to unemployment. They could find no proper jobs outside (in the towns nearby). they could not come back as it would mean loss of face for them," she said.

Now that there was a scheme that they could bank on, they would come back, she hoped.

What she liked most was wiping out the gender bias with regard to payment of wages. "Both men and women get Rs 80 a day," she pointed out.

Ms Sonia Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh chose to be good listeners and shook hands with the villagers.