The ministry of rural development has demanded a nearly 60% increase in the allocation for its marquee job guarantee scheme in the forthcoming Union budget for fiscal 2011-12. The ministry has sought an allocation of around Rs. 64,000 crore, up from Rs. 41,100 crore, for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), a ministry official said, requesting anonymity. MGNREGS, the flagship programme of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government...
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UN pushes for social schemes to protect poor at mere fraction of national wealth
The United Nations began laying the groundwork today for a global “social protection floor” that would guarantee food security, health services for all and old-age pensions, with a senior official stressing that all that is lacking is the political will for an initiative needing minimum investment. “Social security is a human right. We’ve forgotten that for a very long time, but roughly only 20 per cent of the global population has...
More »Works unfinished, Centre orders trail of NREGS funds by Ravish Tiwari
Five years and Rs 75,000 crore later, the Centre has asked states to start a physical trail of expenses incurred under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). The move comes after the government found out that less than 5 per cent of the total 68.6 lakh works taken up to provide jobs to rural unemployed has been completed to date in the current fiscal. Even cumulatively, since its inception in 2006,...
More »Labour Ministry expects Rs 1,300 cr from Budget
The Labour and Employment Ministry is expecting Rs 1,300 crore under planned allocation in the coming Budget, which will enable it to reach out to more workers in unorganised sector and extending health insurance cover to poor, an official said. The Ministry was allocated Rs 965 crore under the same plan in the ongoing fiscal. "We are expecting Rs 1,300 crore in the coming Budget to extend insurance cover to the poor...
More »Nitish pilots change in NREGA fund plan by Chetan Chauhan
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has done what his counterparts in other states failed to do. He convinced the Centre that its policy on disbursement of funds for implementing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) was flawed and needed correction. At a meeting with Plan Panel deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Kumar pointed out the anomaly, which the government acknowledged and was quick to react. This resulted in...
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