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...

Against the backdrop of allegations about under-utilisation of funds in the Northeast, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today bemoaned this trend, while claiming that the current Union government has made allocations to the region like never before. “All I can say is that our government has increased very substantially the allocations for the development of infrastructure in the northeastern region. I think the amount of money that we have allocated has...

Admitting "Leakages" in funds meant for various development programmes and schemes, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, said that the government was working to rectify the problems. "There are Leakages in programmes and schemes. You cannot deny that. It had been and is the endeavour of the government to rectify these," Singh told reporters here. The Prime Minister was asked about the steps taken by the government to ensure that...

The annual confidential report (ACRs) of an IAS officer may now depend a lot on the administrative skills he shows in the implementation of several centrally-sponsored social sector programmes and how effectively he takes a district up on the developmental parameters. Concerned at largescale Leakages in many of the social sector schemes, the Manmohan Singh government has asked its official auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), to change the...

The government should issue food stamps directly to families living below poverty line (BPL), instead of subsidised food, to ensure food security of the poor, an industry lobby said in a report. The Federation of India Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said the current system of providing subsidised food items through the public distribution system (PDS) should be dismantled as it was plagued by Leakages at different levels. It...