-Frontline The Central government's proposal to hand over the supply of supplementary nutrition to NGOs in the name of "community participation" is surely an invitation for private profiteering on the back of this supposedly public scheme. ENSURING safe and healthy conditions for the reproduction of the population is obviously the most fundamental requirement of any society. So the progress of a society can be determined (and indeed is routinely judged) by the...

-The Hindu Chennai: The Tamil Nadu story concerning the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) appears to be no different from some other States, when it comes to irregularities in payment of wages, even though the amount involved is much less here. The report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG), presented in the Assembly on Wednesday, talked of misappropriation of funds in three ways - inflating the number of workers,...

-PTI Bhopal: Serious irregularities like non-submission of utilisation certificates and delay in payment of wages to beneficiaries among others have come to notice in an official report on the implementation of MGNREGA scheme in Madhya Pradesh. It was also found that the state government was not following necessary budgetary procedures while seeking grant from the Centre under the flagship programme. It was noticed during the inspection in eight districts that the ratio of...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: The state brass today urged Jairam Ramesh to increase the wages under the Centre's flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The demand was placed before the Union rural development minister, who was on a daylong visit to Ranchi, at a review meeting of rural projects at Sri Krishna Sinha Institute of Public Administration (SKIPA). "We have requested the Union minister to increase the daily wages for MGNREGS...

-The Hindu   They had sought inter alia universal social security cover for both organised and unorganised sectors Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said some of the demands raised by the various central trade unions, for which they organised a nationwide general strike for two days in February, were in advanced stage of consideration of the government. Those demands include universal social security cover for workers in both organised and unorganised sectors and...