Notwithstanding Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s assertion that there was nothing ‘‘unusual’’ in the spate of farmers’ suicides in the country, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to personally assess the degree of agrarian distress in course of a three-day visit to the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra from June 30 to July 2.Besides farmers’ suicides, the prime minister also plans to personally monitor the implementation of the UPA goverment’s flagship aam aadmi-oriented programmes, the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, the National Rural Health Mission and the expanded Mid-Day Meal scheme.The visit to Maharashtra will be followed up with similar grassroots forays into the backward districts of Bihar, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, the dates of which are yet to be finalised.The PM will base himself in Nagpur and visit several adjoining districts for three days—meeting both beneficiaries and district officials to guage for himself how well the social welfare schemes are working on the ground, sources said.The choice of Vidarbha as the launch pad of his rural sojourns is significant. Singh wanted to start with a Congress-ruled state to avoid the charge that he was trying to find fault with the implementation of government schemes in ‘‘opposition-ruled states’’ such as Bihar, Orissa or Chhattisgarh.A key reason behind the PM’s rural itinerary over the next few months is to dispel the impression that there is a ‘‘government versus party’’ dichotomy on social welfare programmes.By personally monitoring the NREG and other schemes—a task Sonia Gandhi has repeatedly asked partymen to do—Singh wants to showcase his own commitment to the UPA’s ‘‘reforms with a human face’’ agenda, it is felt.
