-Press statement by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha dated 17th November, 2021 The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has provided a cushion to millions of rural households amidst great economic distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. A substantial portion of the household expenditure in rural areas has been met through the NREGA wages and the nation has witnessed a significant rise in the demand for work under the programme since the...

-The Hindu Labourers stage protest at Kalaburagi ZP office KALABURAGI: After being denied their rightful work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), hundreds of rural labourers from different villages across Kalaburagi district staged a demonstration outside the zilla panchayat office in Kalaburagi on November 15. Alleging denial of work by Panchayat Development Officers (PDOs) in several gram panchayats even after submitting applications and completing all the procedures as per...

-The Hindu There remain delays in the stage where the Central government transfers wages to the workers’ accounts There is a famous parable of the 13th-century mystic Mullah Nasruddin. He was once spotted under a street light searching frantically for a key that he had lost. A passer-by noticed the frazzled Nasruddin and stopped to help him. After both of them spent a long time searching for the key, the exasperated passer-by...

-Newsclick.in On Saturday, the Ministry of Rural Development denied that the rural jobs scheme was facing a shortage of funds. Its response, however, “leaves many questions unanswered,” according to civil society members. Activists have questioned the Centre’s response to media reports on the shortage of available funds for the rural employment guarantee scheme in the current financial year, by alleging that it is “misleading” and that it leaves many raised questions “unanswered.” Last...

-The Hindu The Centre has decided to scrap the system of caste-based wage payments in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme after complaints from State Governments. In an order dated November 1, the Finance Ministry directed the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) to “revert to the previous system of generating single muster, single FTO [or Fund Transfer Order] and transferring money into a single NeFMS [or National Electronic...