In the initial months of governance by the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, attempts appear to have been made to begin subverting the positive results of the land reform programme of the Left Front. What is happening appears to be the inevitable outcome of political rivalry, the hegemonic rule of one party giving place to another, with the citadel of power changing its colour, making the “red” one “green”. But...
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Court tells Centre to resolve wages issue through talks by K Balchand
Bench refuses to stay Karnataka High Court order In a major setback to the UPA government at the Centre, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the Karnataka High Court order for payment of minimum wages to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) workers and suggested that the government, instead of appearing adversarial, should resolve the issue through a consultative process. The only relief the government secured was...
More »Setback to UID by Usha Ramanathan
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance finds the UID project to be “conceptualised with no clarity” and “directionless”. THE Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has dealt a body blow to the Unique Identification (UID) project. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was set up under the Planning Commission by an executive order on January 28, 2009. The scheme involves the collection of demographic and biometric information to issue ID numbers to...
More »Child Labour Act may be tweaked to be on RTE page by Akshaya Mukul
Within days of Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) recommending that the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act be amended in sync with the Right to Education (RTE) Act - promising free and compulsory education for children aged between 6 and 14 years - the labour ministry will hold a meeting with HRD officials on Wednesday. This is the first concrete action on NAC's recommendation. NAC's proposal, being supported by the...
More »States fail to pay dues to jobless under MGNREGS by Devika Banerji
-The Economic Times States owe rural job seekers more than Rs 68 crore in unemployment dole, undermining the effectiveness of the government's flagship rural jobs guarantee scheme that has millions of workers in its fold. Workers enrolled under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) are entitled to unemployment allowance if they are not provided a job within 15 days of applying for it. Although the allowance is to...
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