Tuesday, August 16 2005 17:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Upholding the objective of the proposed National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, Left parties today (Aug 16, 2005) pointed towards certain 'practical difficulties' regarding its implementation and hoped that the Center would consider them before tabling it in Parliament.

"We have certain ground level experience in this regard. So we raised certain practical difficulties, which could arise during implementation of the proposed legislation so as to ensure its successful implementation in all the states", West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta said

After a team of Left Parliamentary leaders had an hour-long meeting with Leader of Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi.

"We are confident that convergence of views (between them and the Government) will be achieved," he said refusing to elaborate the areas of 'difficulties'.

"It was a matter of parliamentary privilege", he said. The Bill n is likely to be brought in Lok Sabha tomorrow (Aug 17, 2005) for consideration and passing.

"We strongly uphold the objective of employment generation and we wish that the scheme is successfully implemented", Dasgupta, who also heads the Center's Empowered Committee on VAT, said.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad were also present at the meeting.

Besides Dasgupta, the Left parties were represented among others by Basudeb Acharia, Nilotpal Basu, Brinda Karat, Hannan Mollah Communist Party of India (CPI) (M), C K Chandrappan (CPI), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc) and Manoj Bhattacharya Republican Socialist Party (RSP).