-The Hindu Land owners get Money, those who till get nothing CHANDA (T) (ADILABAD DISRICT): Chanda (T), the village where the Rythu Bandhu programme was launched by Forest Minister Jogu Ramanna in Adilabad district on Thursday threw up a curious scenario as only those who could seemingly do without investment support receiving it and those who forcefully lay claim to it by virtue of being poor landless being ignored. Yes, almost all those...

-CaravanMagazine.in The economist Jean Drèze’s book, Sense and Solidarity, published in late 2017, deals with the impact of Aadhaar on social-welfare programmes, such as the National Food Security Act and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, among other things. Drèze was a member of the United Progressive Alliance government’s advisory council, which designed the NFSA and MGNREGS. He co-authored some of the essays in this book with colleagues and...

-The Hindu Social audits ensure a citizen-centric mode of accountability The breakdown of institutions has underlined the fact that democracy — and especially public funds — need eternal public vigilance. But in India, the elites close ranks to neutralise voices of dissent and alarm, thus preventing public vigilance. Democratic governance needs the citizen to be legally empowered to ask questions, file complaints, and be a part of the corrective process. Social audits, as...

-Frontline.in An audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India comes down heavily on the Haryana government for its lax implementation of the Beti Bachao scheme. NOTWITHSTANDING the tall claims made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre, a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the social and economic sectors (for the year ending 2016) of the Haryana government has revealed huge gaps...

-Business Standard/ India Spend Delays in wage payment have been a constant throughout MGNREGS implementation Bachcha Lal’s shirt hung loosely over his frail body, exposing his sunken collarbones, as he stood outside his straw-thatched home in central Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) Bundelkhand region. “They all rely on me,” he said, pointing towards his tubercular son, daughter-in-law and grand-daughter. Illiterate and a landless labourer, 65-year-old Lal makes about Rs 175 a day when he...