-The Business Standard 42% households that sought employment under MGNREGA and on whose land work was undertaken, did not come back to work on MGNREGA According to a study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and non-governmental organisation (NGO) Sambodhini, 11 per cent of those who used labour under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for work on their fields recorded a shift from traditional agriculture to horticulture. The...

-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...

-The Times of India BHOPAL: If you go by some of the photographs on smart cards used for making payments under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Rewa district, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, the late ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh and other well-known people are all labourers, though with different names. Many such cards, carrying pictures of celebrities but having names of locals, have...

-The Hindustan Times Mansa: In a bizarre reply under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, officials of the zila parishad had asked an RTI applicant, Hardev Singh, a resident of Dhingar village, to collect information from his village sarpanch personally. Besides, the authorities have also violated RTI norms by sending a copy of the application to the village sarpanch, who is supposed to submit the information sought by the applicant to...