-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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Tweaking MGNREGA to cost 5 crore jobs -Iftikhar Gilani
-DNA Now only 51% funds meant for the job scheme will be spent on employment, while the rest will be spent on purchasing material Incorporating major changes in UPA government's flagship scheme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) quietly, the NDA government has converted it to an asset-driven programme rather than just generating jobs, which according to the officials in rural development ministry is going to affect 5 crore...
More »Babu warns of 40% fall in MGNREGS jobs, but overruled
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Overriding objections raised by senior officials, rural development minister Nitin Gadkari has ordered far-reaching changes in the job guarantee scheme (MGNREGS) which has provided seasonal work to one in three rural households in the last eight years. Documents obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by activists show file notings by a senior official in the ministry arguing that Gadkari's announcements run contrary to the...
More »Why India's sanitation crisis needs more than toilets -Soutik Biswas
-BBC When Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech, vowed to eliminate open defecation, India took notice. After all, it was unusual for a prime minister to use the bully pulpit in India to exhort people to end this appalling practice and build more toilets. A staggering 70% of Indians living in villages - or some 550 million people - defecate in the open. Even 13% of urban households do so....
More »Still parched
-The Indian Express The four-month monsoon season ended last week leaving a deficit of 12 per cent. The authorities have called it a below-normal monsoon and the worst in the past five years, but skim the data and the picture seems even more sobering. Nearly one-third of the 36 met divisions in the country have received deficient rainfall, with Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh - which are major agriculture regions -...
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