Even as the Supreme Court has warned of a CBI inquiry into diversion of MGNREGS funds, the Centre has told the States that it will have the complaints investigated by the agency and funds will be withheld if its directives for corrective measures are ignored. The Rural Development Ministry, in its circular to the State governments, underlined its resolve to order a probe into complaints received from independent sources. It will...

Two weeks after Neyamat Ansari, a close associate of national employment guarantee scheme (NREGS) governing council member Jean Dreze, was beaten to death in Jharkhand, the Centre added on Thursday a new section to the act to force state governments to take action against irregularities in the programme. “If the Centre directs the state government for taking steps for effective implementation of the provisions of the act and the states do...

Corruption in implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in UP may be another point of tussle between the state and Central governments, already at loggerheads over various issues. After getting no exact response from the state government over repeated queries regarding the action taken against officials, responsible for financial irregularities committed in the implementation of the scheme, the Centre has warned of seeking help of the...

To keep control over its flagship scheme ~ the much-hyped Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) ~ and to defeat its non-Congress regimes in various states, the Centre has given itself powers to check releasing funds due to ineffective implementation.   In a six-point instruction to states, the ministry of rural development has said that audit teams and media reports have revealed “anomalies” in the implementation of the MGNREGA. “If the...

The Supreme Court, hearing the 2G spectrum scam case, on Wednesday asked the CBI to appoint the best person as public prosecutor to conduct the trial in the special court, to be appointed before March 29. Senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the CBI, said he would take instructions and a suitable person would be appointed. Earlier, the CBI told a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly that it would...