New Delhi, Feb 16, : Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday announced an allocation of Rs. 30,100 crore for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for the year 2009-10 and said the scheme has made a significant contribution in providing employment.

"Adequate funds have been ensured for the flagship programmes. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme gets Rs. 30,100 crore for the year 2009-10. This Scheme generated 138.76 crore person days of employment covering 3.51 crore households in 2008-09," Mukherjee told Parliament.

New Delhi, Feb 16 : Acting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said that the turn over of the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) has increased from Rs.
5,87,000 crore in 2003-04 to Rs. 10,81,000 crore in 2007-08 showing a growth of 84 percent.

New Delhi, Feb 16 : Acting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said that the enactment of the Right to Information Act 2005 at the Centre and in many States has bridged a critical gap in the public decision making process and ushered in greater accountability of public servants.

Presenting the Interim Budget 2009-2010 in the Lok Sabha, Mukherjee said that the Second Administrative Reforms Commission was set up by the Government in August

New Delhi, Feb 16 : Acting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the country''s 16th vote-on-account in Parliament on Monday for fiscal 2009-10.

Prior to Mukherjee''s announcement, India has seen 15 vote on accounts in the past six decades.

The first vote-on-account was presented in 1951 and since then, every time the government changed hands. The last vote-on-account being 2004, by former Finance Minister Jaswant Singh.

New Delhi, Feb 16: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee while presenting an Interim Budget in the Lok Sabha here today said that the emphasis has been given to the empowerment of women as an abiding objective of the UPA Government.

He also announced the launching of two new schemes namely the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme and the Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme in the current year .

New Delhi, Feb 16 : US President Barack Obama''s Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke will meet External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and National Security Adviser (NSA) M K Narayanan here today.

The talks are expected to focus on the situation prevailing in India after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

Holbrooke''s visit provides a first opportunity to India to present an account to the Obama administration on the terrorism threat from Pakistan.