After several studies, reports and even lobbying by MPs and states, the Planning Commission is finally ready with the list of 200 districts where the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the UPA’s showpiece legislation, will be implemented. The initial idea was to choose 200 “most backward” districts in the country but in its final form, inclusiveness was considered important and so every state has at least one district under the scheme. A master list of sorts was prepared by a task force of the Planning Commission headed by economist Rohini Nayyar. In this, districts were identified and ranked 1 to 447 (1 was the most backward) on three criteria: agricultural wages, output per agricultural worker, and SC/ST population. This list formed the core of the “underdeveloped areas of the country,’’ and had districts largely concentrated in Central and Eastern parts of the country. Very few districts of southern and northern India fell in this. In fact, Punjab, Haryana and Kerala did not have any district in the first 150 in this list. Neither did Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu or Karnataka. Job guarantee 200 districts
