Would you rather buy a necessity like kerosene or food grains at a subsidy or receive an equivalent amount of cash instead? Would you prefer that the government decides your consumption pattern rather than figuring out on your own how to spend your income? One of the “big ticket” reform items in the budget was the announcement that subsidies on kerosene, fertilizers and Liquefied Petroleum Gas and delivery through the Public...

The budget has allocated of total Rs160,887 crore, or 36.4% Plan allocation, to the social sector. The Bharat Nirman group of welfare schemes has together been allocated Rs58,000 crore. The income of workers and helpers at anganwadis, or government-run day-care centres, has been doubled. The move is expected to benefit nearly 2.2 million people. However, it has not been replicated for voluntary accredited social health activists of the National Rural...

Recommends guidelines to be issued by Tribal Affairs Ministry The National Advisory Council (NAC) has drawn up detailed operational guidelines, which it has recommended that the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry issue to the States for strengthening the Forest Rights Act (FRA). These guidelines can be issued under Section 12 of the FRA. One, the gram sabhas that are called for enquiry and verification of claims should be convened at the level of...

The promise of the FRA remains largely unfulfilled, says a committee set up by the Ministries of Environment and Forests and Tribal Affairs. IT seems hard for a government used to controlling most of India's common lands to let go of them. Even though it has passed a law mandating more decentralised governance of forests, the government itself is proving to be the biggest obstacle in its implementation. Other than in...

The Government has included small and marginal farmers under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA by an amendment made in para 1(iv) of the list of permissible activities provided in Schedule-I of the Act. The amendment made is as follows: “Provision of irrigation facility, horticulture plantation and land development facilities to land owned by households belonging to the Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes or below poverty line families or to beneficiaries of land...