-The Hindu The recent ordinance amending the Land Acquisition Act has exempted several categories of projects from the requirements of owners' consent and social impact assessment before acquiring land. Officials, however, say norms are yet to be worked out to ensure that only the bare minimum of the land required is acquired. The Act excluded private hospitals, educational institutions and hotels from the category of infrastructure projects. Under the ordinance, public-private projects...
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Lexicon of democratic literacy -Aruna Roy
-The Hindu The introduction of educational qualifications as eligibility criteria for contesting panchayat elections has shocked and angered rural Rajasthan, including supporters of the ruling BJP When the literacy drive was in full force, I happened to visit a village in Ajmer district with a friend who was a civil servant. There was bold graffiti on a prominent school wall, which said: Saksharta ki kya pehchan? Upar chaddi, niche baniyan (How do...
More »A tale of two numbers -Clement Imbert
-The Indian Express For my first field visit to study the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) a few years ago, Nikhil Dey took me from Jaipur to Rajsamand, where I met a team from the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) and the block officers they worked with. The block officers explained how the details of each day of work provided under the MGNREGS was entered online at nrega.nic.in....
More »Changes may limit NREGA to only 60 blocks in Rajasthan -Anindo Dey
-The Times of India JAIPUR: The paradox could not be greater. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which had its genesis in the mass movements launched in Rajasthan, is now facing a dilution in its home state. The Union rural development ministry is likely to amend the provisions of MGNREGA, converting it to just a scheme and thereby threatening to rob it of its es sence. In Rajasthan, such an...
More »‘Modi government is diluting MGNREGA’
-MillenniumPost.in Social activist Aruna Roy has alleged that the Narendra Modi-led NDA government is cutting funds for flagship rural scheme MGNREGA on the sly. The people-friendly rural employment scheme was conceptualised by the National Advisory Council, a quasi-government body under the UPA government, where Roy as a member had played a steering role. The former NAC member levelled strong allegations against rural development minister Nitin Gadkari for diluting MGNREGA by changing the...
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