Sandip Das Launched in February 2006, UPA government's mega National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which for the first time guaranteed 100 days of manual labour to each rural household, continue to make news for all the right as well as wrong reasons. Initially launched in the 200 backward districts as identified by the Planning Commission, the impact of NREGA has been a mixed bag. According to the ministry of rural development, the nodal agency in charge of implementation, a staggering 17.92 lakhs works mostly relating to water conservation and rural connectivity have been taken up in the rural hinder land. However, only about 46% or 8.24 lakh works have been completed till date. Union minister for rural development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh recently said that more than Rs 20,000 crore has already been spent under NREGA. The rural development ministry had released Rs 8,640.86 crore and Rs 12,610.39 crore during 2006-07 and 2007-08 respectively. However these statistics do not reveal the true picture. According the official data, mostly UPA's main rival BJP ruled states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have been toppers in terms of expenditures of Rs 2,891 crore, Rs 1,477 crore and Rs 1,401.83 crore during the current fiscal while only the Congress ruled Andhra Pradesh figures amongst top performing states with an expenditure of Rs 2,083 crore during the current year. The unique feature of the NREGA is that once the fund allocated do not get lapsed after the financial year is over as the scheme for the first time does not provide for any cap in expenditure. What is surprising is the failures of the states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in fully utilising the opportunities provided by NREGA in creating productive assets at the village levels. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, with large number of people under the below the poverty line (BPL), continue to