-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union rural development ministry today highlighted the findings of select studies to defend its plan to modify the rural job guarantee scheme and answer critics who have accused it of trying to dilute the programme. A ministry note that cited these studies said the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) needed reforms to increase the creation of productive and durable assets and reduce politics and...

-The Indian Express In a damning criticism of the UPA government's flagship rural job guarantee scheme, the Rural Development Ministry has said the scheme was reduced to "yet another government programme exploited for pure partisan purpose" and through which "participating agencies and individuals" seek "personal benefit". An internal note prepared by the office of the Rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari has claimed MGNREGA has "earned quite a bad name" due to a...

-Livemint If Narendra Modi does not believe in a social safety net like MGNREGA, he should repeal the Act. Or else, reform it On 13 October, 28 leading development economists wrote a letter urging the Modi government to avoid diluting the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, or MGNREGA (often referred to as a scheme). Judging by the proposed changes to MGNREGA mentioned in the letter, one would be compelled to...

-Deccan Chronicle Under the stewardship of Union rural development minister Nitin Gadkari, things are looking far from good for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the 2005 law passed with cross-party support under UPA-1 that came to be hailed as the world's largest rural job guarantee scheme although, at home, some fair criticisms were also levelled at the way the project worked on the ground. The critics pointed to...

-The Hindustan Times If the news reports doing the rounds are to be believed, the NDA is planning to further dilute the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the country's single-largest flagship programme that has a budget of Rs. 34,000 crore for 2014-15. While most governments when they come to power do tinker with schemes launched by their predecessors - the MGNREGA was the UPA's pet scheme - this...