-PTI   All major agrarian states are facing shortage of farm labourers due to factors like implementation of NREGA and migration of labours to urban areas for better job prospects, Parliament was informed today. "All major agricultural producing states where rural employment generation programmes are being implemented are facing this problem (labour shortage)," Minister of State for Agriculture Harish Rawat said in a written reply to Lok Sabha. Factors such as implementation of Mahatma...

The ministry of rural development has written to all the states warning them not to go slow or suspend works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act at any point of time in the year. The communication reminding the provisions of the right to work Act comes in the wake of reports that some states are going slow in execution of works under the UPA's flagship social sector programme,...

Affluent farmers are exploiting MGNREGS, the central govt’s flagship programme, sending their workers to draw wages whenever they are not required on their farms THE GOVERNMENT seems to be in a fix with its flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) being widely misused even as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) decides to conduct its own independent audit of the scheme along with National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)...

P Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor, The Hindu and 2007 Magsaysay award winner, shares with Pradeep Baisakh his views on the POSCO project, Odisha farmers’ suicides and the National Food Security Bill You have visited Odisha quite often. How, in your view, has it changed in the last 20 years? Inequalities have increased massively. Earlier, we used to hire jeeps which were falling apart. Today, to go to Kalahandi, you have Innovas,...

Matter begins: What is the impact of the National Rural Employment Guarentee Act on rural wages? That is the question that the pundits are asking today. It's a query which feeds into a larger question. Six years have passed since NREGA became a legal reality. What is its village-level impact? It's a complex question to answer. NREGA undertakes to provide employment to anyone who asks for it. Which makes it...