-Live Mint The scheme represents Rs.2.3 trillion spent on wasteful rural consumption This week marked the eighth anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's key rural intervention, launched in 200 districts initially in February 2006. To the extent that such populist schemes helped raise wages without raising productivity. They have contributed more to inflation than to rural wealth. Worse, such schemes have...
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Need to Have Parity of Wage Under MNREGA: Jairam
-Outlook Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today said there was a need to have parity of wage under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) and the Minimum Wages Act. He said, in 14 states including Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Rajasthan, the wage under the rural job scheme was lower than the rate stipulated under the Minimum Wages Act. Speaking at an event to mark the 9th MNREGA Divas...
More »Panel recommends hike in fixed cost paid for urea
-PTI Government has provided Rs 70,585 crore as fertiliser subsidy in this year's budget A ministerial panel today recommended increase in fixed cost paid to urea by Rs 350 per tone but there will be no increase in the rate of crop nutrient for farmers as government will subsidise the additional cost, pegged at Rs 900 crore. Fertiliser Ministry had moved the proposal for modified New Pricing Scheme (NPS) III, according to which...
More »National rural jobs scheme loses steam in Karnataka, Rajasthan-Sanjeeb Mukherjee
-The Business Standard In 2009-10, number of days a household got employment in a year in rural areas of Rajasthan was about 38, which steadily dropped to 23 in 2012-13 Rajasthan and Karnataka, which used to be stand-out performers of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)'s flagship scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), of late, are showing signs of faltering in terms of execution, raising a question mark on...
More »Unkept promise -TK Rajalakshmi
-Frontline The tussle within some Central government Ministries over proposed cuts in the budget for rural development schemes has affected a promise made to senior citizens. THEIR wizened faces said it all. Though there was disappointment, there was also a glimmer of hope that their trek to the national capital would not go in vain. For almost a month, senior citizens, most of them poor, had been pouring into New Delhi from...
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