Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MG-NREGA) has been in news mainly due to corruption or inefficiency. The country has spent close to Rs 40,000 crore this fiscal but a large number of urban middle class people and opinion leaders don’t know what to make of it. Cynicism apart, the rights-based scheme has proved to be a game-changer in rural India despite mixed success. The scheme has been relatively...
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BPL Families in Maharashtra to get 9 kg extra grains by Vinaya Deshpande
The ripple effects of the storm caused over the rotting food grains will now benefit 70 lakh Below Poverty Line (BPL) card-holders in Maharashtra. The State government has announced that the BPL quota has been increased from 35 kg to 44 kg per card a month for the period between September 2010 and February 2011. “The Central government has sanctioned the decision and has made a provision of Rs. 125 crore for...
More »Bogus BPL card holders asked to surrender
Concerned over the huge mismatch between the Central estimate of 6.5 crores below poverty line families and the 11 crores BPL cards issued by the states under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), the food ministry has warned all the bogus card holders to surrender them or face criminal prosecution. The warning has been issued following the Supreme Court’s directive on August 31 asking the government to reform the TPDS and...
More »Plan panel against PDS for all, to propose differential pricing by Nistula Hebbar
To avoid a big burden on the exchequer from the proposed food security law, the Planning Commission will propose some key changes to the plan, including a virtual abandonment of the concept of universal public distribution system (PDS) endorsed by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC). Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia in a presentation to Gandhi later this week would suggest that under the proposed scheme, grain be...
More »Surrender bogus ration cards or face penal action: Centre by Gargi Parsai
174 lakh bogus cards were cancelled in various States in the last one year Ministry tells States, Union Territories to issue ads in newspapers The Centre has warned bogus ration card holders to surrender their cards or face penal action. As part of a campaign, the government has cancelled about 174 lakh bogus ration cards in various States in the last one year. In a recent letter to the States and Union Territories, the...
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