Rural job scheme NREGA will be revamped to address problems such as delayed wage payments, lack of asset creation and poor skill development among the workers. “There are several structural issues in NREGA. The scheme will be restructured in the next one month,” rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said on a day the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council reviewed problems in the UPA’s showpiece welfare programme. Ramesh said the NAC’s suggestions would...
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New Land Acquisition Bill unlikely to set threshold for government intervention, states to frame policies by Devika Banerji & Prabha Jagannathan
The new Land Acquisition Bill is unlikely to set a threshold for government intervention in land purchases, leaving it to the states to frame policies on this politically volatile subject. The Bill will, however, eliminate any scope for discrimination by specifying the same rate of compensation for all affected for land acquired by private developers or the state on their behalf. It will also put the onus of compensation on the...
More »Livelihood compensation in new land bill by Prasad Nichenametla
While Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is on Bharat Bhraman assuring Dalits, tribals and other unprivileged their share in growth, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has tasked himself with ensuring party scion’s mark in the government policy. Livelihood compensation for displaced landless on a par with landowners, share in the price appreciation of land with the project, acquisition in strict accordance with the tribal and forest dwellers acts are the...
More »NAC proposals to strengthen MGNREGS by Smita Gupta
The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) — at the initiative of which the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was rolled out in UPA-I — is taking a fresh look at how to strengthen it. The NAC wants the scheme to move from its “relief work mode” to one that would blend “natural resources and labour to build productive assets.” When the NAC meets here on Thursday, the Deep...
More »Vote-catching MGNREGS to be revamped by Smita Gupta
New-look programme to be rolled out in 2,000 most backward blocks within a year As part of a coordinated and aligned initiative, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, a re-energised Union Rural Development Ministry and the Planning Commission are working in tandem to make up for the time and money lost due to the underperformance in UPA-II on the government's flagship programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Even as...
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