The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today said that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, MGNREGA can very well become a silver bullet for India’s rural renewal, if the local bodies can rise to the challenge .Releasing a report card on MGNREGA 'Sameeksha in New Delhi, Dr. Singh said the Panchayati Raj institutions have to gear themselves to play the central role assigned to them and the government has to provide resources to them. He said more than 120 million job cards are issued in MGNREGA each year and nearly 37000 crore rupees are earned by villagers across the country. He said MNREGA reaches and benefits 50 million rural households in the country – almost one in four families. The Prime minister said that problems of late payments has to be addressed at the earliest.

Dr. Singh said the MGNREGA offers the promise of entitlement, empowerment, security and opportunity to millions of the marginalized citizens. The prime minister expressed hope that policy makers, public representatives, implementing agencies and civil society enable more such independent evaluations. He said in an unprecedented step in the direction of financial inclusion, nearly ten crore bank and post office accounts have been opened and around 80 percent of MGNREGA payments are made through them.

Dr Singh said, the MGNREGA is perhaps the UPA government's most popular and successful flagship program. He said the Sameeksha has a lot of food for thought on where we stand six years since we launched this historic Act.