Bowing to pressure from the political leadership of the Congress, the government will consider making food security universal, but at a higher price for the rich. Food security was an electoral promise of the Congress before the 2009 polls, but the initial draft of the Bill said that it would apply only to the poor. After Congress president Sonia Gandhi refused to accept the Bill in that form, an empowered group...
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biometric cards for MGNREGA beneficiaries by Sanjay Ojha
Beneficiaries of schemes under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) will now get their wages without haing to go to the bank or post office and without seeking help from middlemen to complete the formalities. To ensure this, the state rural development department has sign an agreement with Union Bank which will provide biometric cards to the MGNREGA beneficiaries. The first lot of 5,000 biometric cards will be...
More »Another reason
In the hierarchy of sins, robbing the poorest of the poor is right up there. That is what the holders of the 11.28 lakh fake ration cards in Madhya Pradesh are guilty of. By state government estimates, these duplicates constitute 16 per cent of all ration cards in the state. Since the Below Poverty Line and Antyodaya (meant for the very poorest) cards entitle holders to essential food commodities such...
More »Why the UID number project must be scrapped by Gopal Krishna
Activist Gopal Krishna makes a case that the Unique Identification Number project is a gross violation of fundamental human rights and points out that a similar project/law in Britain is going to be repealed. This is with reference to a privacy invasion project which is relevant to India and all the democratic countries of the world. The very first bill that is to be presented by the UK's new coalition...
More »biometric cards to NREGA workers on anvil
In an innovative move, biometric cards will be given to those working under NREGA to bring more transparency in the implementation of the Centre's employment guarantee programme, facing complaints of gross irregularities and malpractices in many parts of the country. A decision to prepare biometric database of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA workers "within 12 months" has recently been taken by the Rural Development Ministry here in a meeting which was also...
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