-The Hindu A standing committee of the Legislature comprising members from the Assembly and the Council will oversee the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and other rural development schemes to put an end to embezzlement of its funds. Responding to a demand made by the Opposition in the Assembly on Friday for constitution of a House Committee to go into the irregularities in implementation of the...

  MGNREGA, which entitles millions of workers enrolled under it to at least Rs 100 a day for 100 days of work in a year, is undergoing an overhaul based on a set of recommendations of a committee headed by the Planning Commission member Mihir Shah.   Encapsulated in The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 - Operational Guidelines 2012 in what is being called “MGNREGA 2.0”, the recommendations aim for...

The District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Vellore has adopted a cluster approach in undertaking various works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in order to enable more villagers to get employment, according to N. Srinivasan, Project Officer of the DRDA. Talking to newspersons at the Alangulam irrigation tank in Melappulam village panchayat in Arcot panchayat union where the work of deepening of the tank under MGNREGS was...

Madhubhai Koli of Khambha village in Amreli district worked for 10 days under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in 2009. He was paid Rs 1,000 that were deposited in his account. What is shocking is that Koli died way back in 2006. The much-publicized employment programme of the UPA government reeks of severe corruption in this village of Saurashtra. And, a Right to Information (RTI) application by...

Faulty procurement, rising farm inputs force West Bengal farmers to commit suicide LONG known as farmer friendly, West Bengal is now making headlines for farmers’ suicides. Reportedly 31 farmers, including landless farm labourers and small traders of agriculture produce, in the state took their lives between October last year and January. Twenty-one of the 31 deaths are from the state’s rice bowl Burdwan district. And this is probably a reason the spate...