The Latehar district administration has sent a report to the Union home ministry, highlighting the possible reason of the murder of MGNREGA activist Niyamat Ansari. Ansari, a social activist and an associate of socio-economist Jean Dreze, was beaten up by an armed group of Maoists and members of Van Raksha Samiti on the night of March 2 after he was dragged out of his house at Jerua village in Manika block...
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'Block MGNREGS funds for Sonbhadra, set up probe'
Member, Central Employment Guarantee Council, Sanjay Dixit has asked the Centre to stop release of MGNREGS funds to district Sonbhadra. He also demanded that a probe by a Central agency be set up into the charges of diversion of funds. Talking to mediapersons on Friday, Dixit alleged that "the state government, in a well-calculated move, is trying to cover the corruption trail in Sonbhadra, which is alarming". The funds must be...
More »The UID Project and Welfare Schemes by Reetika Khera
This article documents and then examines the various benefits that, it is claimed, will flow from linking the Unique Identity number with the public distribution system and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. It filters the unfounded claims, which arise from a poor understanding of how the PDS and NREGS function, from the genuine ones. On the latter, there are several demanding conditions that need to be met in order...
More »Not smart enough? by Swati Narayan
Smart card technology can be used to streamline India's unwieldy PDS. But it is yet to prove itself under real world challenges. Smart cards have become the latest buzzword to remedy India's public distribution system (PDS) — one of the largest food grain delivery networks in the world with more than 500,000 ‘ration' shops. Electronic voting machines have streamlined Indian elections. Credit cards, which can be swiped for payment at any...
More »Panchayats told to hold regular meetings on rural jobs scheme by Ruhi Tewari
The government wants to make its rural jobs guarantee programme more open to scrutiny and empower its beneficiaries by getting panchayats (village councils) to periodically disclose information about the scheme’s functioning in that area. To this end, the ministry of rural development has issued an advisory to village panchayats, making it mandatory for them to convene regular gram sabhas (village general bodies). The initiative is also aimed at making the scheme...
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