HYDERABAD, India, 31 January 2006 — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson and Congress President Sonia Gandhi will launch the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) program on Feb. 2 from Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh.
“The choice of Andhra Pradesh for launching of the NREG program across 200 districts in the country reflects the affection that Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi have for our state,” Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy said at the two-day district collectors’ conference that opened here yesterday.
The scheme covers initially 13 out of 22 rural districts in the state. “Through the scheme, we expect to provide guaranteed employment to about 1.3 million rural households in these districts. At least 100 days of guaranteed employment will be provided to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work,” he pointed out.
