-The Telegraph New Delhi: Nearly 18 million villagers registered under the rural job scheme face the prospect of toiling without wages as funds have dried up amid a drought-triggered surge in demand for work. Twelve states have run up "negative balances", meaning workers' payments are due, while the rest have exhausted 95 per cent of the funds released to them so far, according to the rural development ministry, which runs the Mahatma...

-The Hindu Rural Development Minister asks Jaitley to release Rs. 5,000 crore more With the demand by States for the release of money under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to clear pending liabilities and dues getting more persistent, Rural Development Minister Birender Singh has written to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, urging him to immediately release the additional Rs.5,000 crore as promised. “Since MGNREGS is a demand-driven wage employment programme...

-Down to Earth The rural development ministry had recently demanded an additional allocation of Rs 5,000 crore to maintain the momentum of MGNREGA Civil society has supported the demand made by the Union Ministry of Rural Development to the Ministry of Finance to provide Rs 5,000 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (MGNREGS). Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the United Progressive Alliance’s employment generation flagship scheme,...

-PTI New Delhi: Direct transfer of kerosene subsidy to the bank accounts of users will help in better targeting of the benefits to those who actually deserve it, the Finance Ministry said today. The government had last night said it will roll out the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme for kerosene from April 1 where the users will buy the cooking fuel at market rate but will get financial support directly in...

-The Hindu In a big reform push, the Centre on Friday announced a scheme to implement direct benefit transfers for kerosene subsidies starting April 1, as is already being done for LPG users, by incentivising States to make the transition. Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, and Rajasthan have already agreed to initiate the scheme in a few of their districts. Together, these States will implement DBT for kerosene...