Guaranteeing employment to rural poor Good step - must be implemented quickly GOVERNMENT'S plan to provide work to the unemployed in the rural areas is an appropriate strategy to address the miseries of the abjectly poor of rural Bangladesh. The plan seeks to ameliorate their sufferings during the lean period for about hundred days, to at least one person of an affected household. But we wonder, given the urgency of the situation, whether it is proper to tag the plan with the next fiscal year that doesn't commence till July. Two proposals of the government in this regard have attracted our attention that need to be dilated upon. One is the intention of the government to provide work for those who are in need of it. Two, its plan to provide cash of up to a certain amount, in case it fails to provide job to the needy. We feel that there are several parameters that the government must work within and certain factors that must be considered while addressing the distress of the rural people, which the projected plan seeks to. As of today, because of the unbridled rise in the price of food grains, particularly rice, the whole country seems to be in the grip of monga. This has been brought about by a set of circumstances which must be addressed to allow for the marginalised and very poor to survive. The measures proposed to obviate the distress are well thought out. What we wait to see is the effective implementation of these plans. However, the issue of monga or the lean period problems is quite a different kettle of fish, which must be addressed in a long-term manner. The monga phenomenon is confined within about six upazillas of the northwestern part of the country. This is a repetitive occurrence and has impacted the people of the monga-hit areas in more ways than merely economically. The problems of the monga-hit areas have been exacerbated by the price hike. Therefore, in addition to the short-term actions that the finance minister has proposed, a holistic approach to address the problems associated with the lean period shortfall in certain specific parts of the country must be worked out. Here the issue of access to land, which is one of the causes of monga, must also be dovetailed to provisions of inputs that will add value to the land or alternatively employment opportunities of permanent nature must be provided. Paying cash for a particular period to a particular segment of the people may be unavoidable now, but the best option is to create jobs rather than make the people dole-dependent. (Editorial)