New Delhi: Voicing opposition to the Employment Guarantee Bill in its present form, former Prime Minister V P Singh and Left leaders Sitaram Yechuri and D Raja today (Dec 7, 2004) asked the Centre to commit itself to fully-funding the scheme and extending it to the whole country in a time-bound manner.

"The draft Bill allows the Government to 'switch off' the employment guarantee anywhere at any time. We ask the Government to give a commitment to extend the scheme in a phased time-bound manner to the entire country," Singh told reporters in New Delhi.

He said there was a "hint" that the scheme could be temporary and steps should be taken to eliminate all "tentativeness".

Singh said no statutory wage had been set in the Bill, which said that unemployment benefit would be given only to "poor" families if the Government failed to provide them jobs.

"This will probably be on the basis of a Below Poverty Line (BPL) list which, given past experience, is likely to make a total mockery of the system," he said.

Yechuri said the employment guarantee scheme, originally part of the Congress election manifesto, had been included in the UPA Government's Common Minimum Programme (CMP) on the suggestion of the party.

"There should be no restrictions placed on it now. We are giving outside support to the Government on the basis of the CMP. If it is diluted, our pressure will be there to ensure that it is not derailed," he added.

Raja called for statutory backing for the scheme so that it was "not left to the mercy of the Government of the day".