Highlighting the plight of the poor in rural areas, particularly women, Brinda Karat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Monday asked the government to allocate more funds for rural development schemes. She also favoured lowering of productivity norms for minimum wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) so that more villagers could benefit. Initiating a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the working of the Rural Development Ministry, Ms. Karat said that on the one hand the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government had been boasting of a 8-9 per cent GDP growth, and, on the other, funds allocation for various rural development schemes was decreasing. It came down from 0.36 per cent of the GDP in 2005-06 to 0.27 per cent in 2008-09. Accusing the government of promoting an