State governments have been asked to roll out the model in which payments would be made through bio-metric authentication at the village level For speedy disbursal of payments to workers under the flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the ministry of rural development has decided to introduce the business correspondence model, to be followed by banks. State governments have been asked to roll out the model in which payments...
More »SEARCH RESULT
‘NREGA work must go on during farm season’ by Prasad Nichenametla
The ministry of rural development has written to all the states warning them not to go slow or suspend works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act at any point of time in the year. The communication reminding the provisions of the right to work Act comes in the wake of reports that some states are going slow in execution of works under the UPA's flagship social sector programme,...
More »‘We’ll take the burden for employees for some time, but how long?’ by P Vaidyanathan Iyer
RV Gumaste, a member of Kirloskar’s project team that set up Bellary’s first iron-making unit in 1994, has never seen such times since he first moved base from Pune 17 years ago. “We will take the burden for our regular employees for some time. But how long?” says the industry veteran, who was appointed Managing Director of Kirloskar Ferrous Industries Ltd in July 2003. The Rs 1,100-crore company has 800...
More »Rural job scheme revamp by Basant Kumar Mohanty
Rural job scheme NREGA will be revamped to address problems such as delayed wage payments, lack of asset creation and poor skill development among the workers. “There are several structural issues in NREGA. The scheme will be restructured in the next one month,” rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said on a day the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council reviewed problems in the UPA’s showpiece welfare programme. Ramesh said the NAC’s suggestions would...
More »PDS: Reform or Reject? by Rukmini Shrinivasan
Some interesting findings emerging on the Public Distribution System. A recent study of 100 villages in nine states says that leakages in the Public Distribution System are being plugged and diversion of grain has reduced, except in Bihar. The bad news, the researchers say, is that there are serious deficiencies in the BPL list. The study was conducted in 106 randomly selected villages in two districts each of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh,...
More »