-Jagran.com Parliamentarians on Wednesday raised concerns about the existing corruption in the UPA government's flagship Mahatma Gandhi National rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), saying it needs to be revised to ensure better implementation and reach. Speaking at a seminar on 'Hunger in India: A Silent Emergency', Rajya Sabha member M.S. Swaminathan said the time has come to rework the job guarantee scheme."It has a tremendous potential and government needs to revise it...

-Rediff.com Bihar rural Development Minister Nitish Mishra on Monday ordered an inquiry into the allegations that nearly 73 per cent of the funds allotted for implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National rural Employment Guarantee Act in 38 districts of Bihar, between 2006 and 2012, have been embezzled by authorities "The department will inquire into the corruption and will conduct physical verification of all facts related to the scheme," Mishra said. The Bihar government...

-The Times of India VADODARA/ ANAND: Agri-clinic-cum-agri-business centres that address the needs of farming families should be set up across the country. Father of India's Green Revolution professor M S Swaminathan advocated this on Monday. Eminent geneticist and member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, professor Swaminathan said this while delivering the first Dr Verghese Kurien Memorial Lecture at the Institute of rural Management Anand (IRMA).  IRMA has constituted the memorial lecture series which...

-The Economic Times Congress is hoping to reap political dividends from its move to provide direct cash transfer to the beneficiaries of welfare schemes just as it believes it did in the previous elections from the rural employment guarantee scheme. rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, who, along with finance minister P Chidambaram, was deputed by the party to explain the details of the ambitious scheme on Tuesday, termed the initiative "a...

-The Times of India MYSORE: Around 100 rural women from across the district are participating in a two-day 'Panchayat committee mela' which began here on Monday. Panchayat members coming under Mahila Samakhaya Karnataka are attending the mela which is aimed at empowering them so they can be self-reliant by availing schemes and programmes. Series of programmes and lectures are being held to educate them on the facilities provided at the panachayat level....