Hyderabad, Aug 14 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today said under the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (REGS) families could invest a part of their earnings in income-generating schemes and trigger an economic boom in rural areas.

He said 100 days employment was guaranteed under the programme for poor families in rural areas with Rs 80 as minimum daily wage.

Presiding over the first meeting of the A P State Employment Guarantee Council (EGC), Mr Reddy who is its chairman, said planting of Pongamia should be taken up on a massive scale under the programme besides water conservation, watershed development and afforestation.

Minister for Rural Development D Srinivas said the implementation of the scheme was a great success in the state.

Principal Secretary, Rural Development K Raju announced that a Telugu Website was launched today on the scheme.

He said 42,88,774 job cards were issued to rural households, 45,437 works were taken up to respond to the labour demand, 9,02,336 wage seekers employed and Rs 88.55 crore expenditure incurred.

EGC is a statutory body and it has members from labour organisations, disadvantaged groups and panchayatraj institutions.

It is also an advisory body to recommend, review, monitor and evaluate the programmes on a regular basis.

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