In an effort to score a significant political point in a year full of elections, Congress on Thursday gave clear indication that the scope of the UPA government’s flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme would soon be expanded to make it a year-round programme instead of the present minimum 100 days’ job assurance.

The indication came just hours after party leader Rahul Gandhi led a delegation of party MPs to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, demanding the setting up of a “social auditing mechanism” to ensure effective implementation of the scheme and also its Central monitoring.

“Definitely, the intention is to make it an all-India, 24X7 scheme,” AICC spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said while briefing reporters about the Gandhi-led team’s meeting with the Prime Minister. However, he said there was no specific discussion on making it a 365-day scheme during the meeting between Singh and the delegation which comprised Tushar Amarsinh Choudhury, Milind Deora, Jitin Prasada, Deepindar Hooda, Sandeep Dixit, Pallam Raju, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Devbrat Singh and Tejaswini.

After the meeting, Gandhi told reporters, “We met the Prime Minister to discuss the implementation of the NREG Act. We gave some suggestions on how we can improve the implementation of the NREGA.”

The delegation placed before the PM seven to eight points, including improved coordination among states in the implementation of NREG scheme.

Asked to comment on the adverse CAG report on the scheme, Gandhi said it was not fair to describe the scheme as bad. “The scheme is good. I do not think it is fair to lambast the programme. It has had very good results in certain areas, but has had poor results in other areas,” he said, adding the implementation of the scheme should be improved.