-PTI The jobs scheme has expedited the financial inclusion of the rural population, says Manmohan Singh Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said bank and post office accounts opened under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) will help the government provide direct cash transfers to the people. “MNREGA has brought momentum in the financial inclusion of our rural population. Besides direct financial benefit, the scheme has given many indirect benefits...

-Live Mint Preventing entry of Dalits, tribespeople to places of worship should be made a punishable offence, says NAC Preventing Dalits and tribespeople from entering places of worship will be made a punishable offence under legal changes proposed by the National Advisory Council (NAC), which sets the social policy for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Obstructing members of such groups from using community resources will also be made an offence under...

-The Times of India HARRAI: The Khairwar tribe in this remote village of Madhya Pradesh is on the verge of extinction because of the tribe members' inability to conceive. In the past five decades, villagers say, there has been only one birth in the tribe. And that child too -- born in 2011 -- died within a year. Why are the members of this community not able to have children? Locals attribute...

-The Times of India PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday lashed out at the Press Council of India (PCI) chairman Markandey Katju and called the PCI's report on alleged press censorship in Bihar as 'biased'. The CM was replying to the debate on the motion on governor's address in the state assembly. "I want to tell him that he has dialled a wrong number," he said at the conclusion of his...

-The Times of India BHUBANESWAR: The Opposition on Wednesday accused the state government of perpetrating irregularities in the centrally-sponsored rural job guarantee scheme leading to embezzlement of an alleged 50% of the money earmarked for expenditure. panchayati Raj minister Kalpataru Das rejected the allegations, saying Odisha was faring better than most states in implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme launched in 2005. He said so far 100.33 lakh families...