CAG might fault NREGA but not the carmakers

NREGA, the world's biggest-ever employment guarantee scheme, captured the public imagination well before the first ditch was dug.

It still keeps hitting the headlines eight years on - the latest for a CAG report that stops short of calling UPA's flagship social welfare scheme a drag. Hogwash, says the humble panchayat pradhan, who looks at life and career in terms of before and after NREGA, with its Rs 40,000 crore annual budget.

NREGA sceptics would still grudgingly acknowledge that the scheme was responsible for a true decentralisation of politics in India, at least the "give and take" variety that India is known for.

Villagers in central and northern parts of this great nation of ours have coined a term that captures the impact of NREGA on the panchayat system. They call it the "Bicycle to Bolero" syndrome: if the humble pradhan used to carry out his social duties pedalling the bylanes of his village - in the post-NREGA dispensation, he does the same, relaxing in the back seat of a spanking new Bolero.

No, sorry, buying Bolero is not one of the many works approved under the NREGA Act. For those inclined towards the stats, Bolero - a vehicle hardly seen in the cities - is the fifth-largest fourwheeler sold in India, according to industry figures for 2012-13 . You know, just saying.