The sea change that India’s national scheme for rural employment guarantee has accomplished is hard to fathom, its vastness touching the lives or more than 100 million people. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 (NREGA, subsequently renamed after Mahatma Gandhi, or MGNREGA) was a landmark in Indian legislation. Under the act, as of April 2008, for the first time in India’s history, all rural citizens have a legal right...
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Centre witholding NREGA funds to West Bengal: CM
The Centre was not releasing Rs 1,700 crore in NREGA funds to West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee claimed today. "Despite placing full account for expenditure under the NREGA scheme in the state, the central government is yet to give Rs 1,700 crore," Bhattacharjee told a panchayat workers' rally here. "They are giving Rs 100 crore or Rs 150 crore in phases, but have withheld the main amount," he said. Ministers of state...
More »Buddha, Sisir spar over MNREGS fund report
Union Minister of State for Rural Development on Tuesday contested Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s claim that the state government is maintaining the requisite books of accounts of MNREG schemes. When asked about the CM’s claim, Union Minister Sisir Adhikari said the state has failed to submit the utilisation certificates for the past two months. The Left Front government has not followed the rules and procedures for submitting the accounts of the...
More »“Basic procedures not followed before project was launched”
As the Prime Minister hands out the first official AADHAAR numbers in the tribal district of Nandurbar on Wednesday, civil society activists in the capital are questioning the very basis of the ambitious Unique Identification (UID) scheme. “Even basic procedures have not been followed before launching such a massive project,” said Usha Ramanathan, an expert in law, poverty and civil rights. “The people of India, as well as Parliamentarians need to...
More »MNREGA workers peeved at being paid Re. 1 by K Balchand
Peeved at being paid just Re. 1 as their daily wage for the labour they put in under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), workers of Gudlia Gaon under Rupbas Panchayat of Tonk district in Rajasthan are set to tread Bapu's path to protest against the injustice meted out to them. These workers will stage a Satyagraha in Jaipur on October 2 and return the entire money that...
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