The over 2 lakh gram panchayats across the country will have to start recording their sittings in audio and video by the end of this month to bring transparency to proceedings, the panchayati raj ministry has ordered. The ministry issued a detailed order last December to all states and Union territories and warned that any panchayat failing to follow the rule would suffer cuts in funds to run government programmes. “This is...

-IANS   Five years after a movement that catapulted it into the national spotlight and spelt the beginning of the end of the 34-year Left rule, Nandigram is still counting the losses of the bloody anti-land acquisition movement. Development is at a standstill and many of those who had been at the forefront of the movement and lost their family members say they were used as cannon fodder against the mighty Left, which...

-The Hindu   Despite low literacy rates, most of the low-income single women in the country are not dependent on their families but run their households on their own, according to the findings of a study released by Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh. However, since the government does not consider them so, they are neglected and forced to survive on less than the prescribed minimum wage. Mr. Ramesh released the study...

-The Hindu To overcome the delay in payment of wages to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) workers in Jharkhand, allegedly owing to administrative apathy, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has piloted a project in Jharkhand. Under the project, online authentication and Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) in respect of MGNREGS was conducted in three blocks of three districts. First time in India For the first time in India,...

-The Economic Times   States owe rural job seekers more than Rs 68 crore in unemployment dole, undermining the effectiveness of the government's flagship rural jobs guarantee scheme that has millions of workers in its fold. Workers enrolled under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) are entitled to unemployment allowance if they are not provided a job within 15 days of applying for it. Although the allowance is to...