The gruesome murder of NREGA activist Niyamat Ansari has shocked the progressive civil society and political groups in the country. According to reports (one, two), Niyamat Ansari had exposed a case of corruption in NREGA and an FIR was lodged against a former BDO and another Panchayat Sevak of Manika block, Latehar (Jharkhand). On 2nd March 2011, Niyamat Ansari was picked from his house and beaten to death. The reports...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Total Matching Records found : 652
Drought effect: Asset creation gathers pace by Devika Banerji
There is a silver lining to the drought that hit India in 2009-10. Although it sapped the country's growth, it led to an almost doubling of physical assets created under the government's flagship rural employment scheme that year. The drought of 2009-10 was the worst that the country had faced in 17 years. As regular jobs in the farm sector dried up, more people sought work under the Mahatma Gandhi National...
More »Flagship schemes in go-slow mode by Sreelatha Menon
The flagship programmes of the UPA government in the social sector have had little impact. Spending has been between 25 and 75 per cent in many schemes like the Indira Awas Yojana, the rural housing scheme, the rural electrification scheme and the rural health programme. Irrigation statistics have come under scrutiny. Some education initiatives have managed to achieve physical targets but several NGOs have raised issues concerning the quality. National Rural Employment...
More »NREGA Budget Disappoints on the Downside by Tom Wright
One of the big surprises in the 2011-2012 budget was that spending on the country’s landmark rural employment program remained flat, disappointing activists who see it as a way of redressing growing wealth disparities. The program has since 2006 guaranteed 100 days of work a year for unskilled laborers to build rural infrastructure like irrigation ditches and roads. The Congress party has made the program, known as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural...
More »More bang for the buck from Non-NREGA work
Public employment created by non-NREGA public works may just be giving more bang for the buck than NREGA, around a fourth more going by the findings of the NSS survey on employment in 2007-08. In which case, the finance minister would do well to keep the spending for NREGA under check. According to the NSS 2007-08, a total of 477 million mandays of work were created under non-NREGA public works and...
More »
