-The Times of India The Right to Information (RTI) Act may have helped unearth some of the biggest scams and anomalies in schemes like NRHM and MGNREGA, but it is yet to become a potent tool to fight injustice for the common man. And the biggest stumbling block is the attitude of the government departments. The Act lays down that information should be provided within 30 days to the seeker. But a...
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Tweak in policy to withdraw job scheme funds
-The Times of India The rural development department has finally made some changes to bail out the district administration in the last month of the current fiscal. The rural development department has asked the district administration to allow the BDOs and mukhiyas to withdraw fund for the purpose of implementing MGNREGA schemes and for wages of workers. Sources also said withdrawal ofMGNREGA fund has come to a total halt after the panchayat...
More »Is this the end of the road for MGNREGA?-Niranjan Rajadhyaksha
In an interview with Mint in February, Jairam Ramesh, minister of rural development, was asked whether the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) would be rolled back in the upcoming budget as part of a plan to reduce the fiscal deficit. “How can we roll back a demand-driven programme?” Ramesh had replied. But that is precisely what seems to have happened. On Friday, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced a...
More »Funds slashed for flagship programme MGNREGA-K Balchand
-The Hindu The budget focuses on rural development with a moderate hike in allocation, but the government has downsized in a big way the importance of its flagship programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), on which it reportedly galloped to power in 2009. For the scheme entitling jobs to below poverty line (BPL) households in rural areas, the allocation has been reduced by 17.5 per cent to only...
More »Fund boost: MPs can now dip into MGNREGA kitty by Prasad Nichenametla
-The Hindustan Times MPs, who already get R5 crore each to develop their constituencies, suddenly have more funds to dip into. The government has made available to them money under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), its flagship livelihood programme. The statistics and programme implementation ministry, which monitors the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), has decided to converge the fund with MGNREGA after representations from MPs,...
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