Even as the state government mulls over the compulsory voting bill, farmers in the tribal Dahod district have decided to boycott the local elections over non-payment of wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). There are about 2,223 such farmers in Fatehpura taluka of Dahod district bordering Rajasthan, who have decided to abstain from voting. Incidentally, police investigation continues in the case in which sarpanchs are alleged to have...

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...

Even as the state government mulls over the compulsory voting bill, farmers in the tribal Dahod district have decided to boycott the local elections over non-payment of wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). There are about 2,223 such farmers in Fatehpura taluka of Dahod district bordering Rajasthan, who have decided to abstain from voting. Incidentally, police investigation continues in the case in which sarpanchs are alleged to have...

Flaying the Punjab government for its “poor performance in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) and other welfare schemes, Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayats P C Joshi said: “By doing so, the Punjab government is denying its poor their due.” In Ludhiana to preside over a meeting of the district-level vigilance and monitoring committee, Joshi said: “Punjab fares even lower than my district, Bhilwara,...

Members of the National Advisory Council (NAC) Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze have accused the UPA government of being “increasingly anti-labour” in their assessement of the national rural employment guarantee programme, on its fifth anniversary. With support from several activists associated with the government’s flagship social sector scheme, they have alleged that the “contractor mafia”is increasingly dominating in the states, minimising the potential to create remunerative employment through the programme. According to...