The Government on Friday renamed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.<br/><br/>This was announced by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh while addressing a convention on Panchayati Raj in New Delhi to mark its Golden Jubilee. He said this will be a befitting tribute to the Father of the Nation-Mahatma Gandhi, who strongly advocated the decentralisation of governance, to make it more effective and transparent.<br/><br/>Dr. Manmohan Singh said that Panchayati Raj is an important mechanism for implementing government welfare scheme as it ensures participation of common man in their execution. Dr. Singh said that NREGA has yielded desired results despite initial problems.<br/><br/>Dr Singh however regretted that some of the states are not properly implementing Panchayati Raj and these institutions are not given funds and are running short of man-power.<br/>Addressing the convention, UPA Chairperson Mrs. Sonia Gandhi said that Panchayati Raj is an effective tool for Social and Economic transformation of India. Recalling the contribution of late Rajiv Gandhi in this direction, she said that it was his belief to strengthen democratic process from the grass root level and the amendments in the constitution in 1993 were steps in this direction.<br/><br/>Mrs Gandhi called for making the implementation of NREGA more transparent to plug all leakages. Panchayati Raj Minister C.P. Joshi and representative from the states and Panchayati members are participating in the day-long convention in Delhi.