The rural development ministry has proposed several changes in the rural Job Guarantee programme to ensure timely payment of wages and eradicate graft at a time when the Congress party-led ruling alliance has come under fire for poor governance and its failure to tackle corruption. The ministry has listed nine challenges to the proper functioning of the programme and proposed possible modifications in a note. The challenges include ensuring demand-driven legal...
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Only 15 of 28 states have named rural jobs scheme ombudsman by Ruhi Tewari
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are among the Indian states that have failed to name an ombudsman to handle grievances and prevent graft related to the central government’s flagship rural jobs programme, even two years after they were directed to do so. Only 15 of the nation’s 28 states have appointed the ombudsmen, according to the ministry of rural development. Assam, Haryana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu also haven’t appointed the watchdog. Setting up...
More »Social audit shows irregularities in rural job scheme
-The Times of India GARHWA: Largescale irregularities, including non-payment of wages, fake job cards, lack of awareness and non-conduct of social audit in some panchayats came to the fore at a district-level public hearing at a social audit programme of MGNREGA held at the local Nilamber Town Hall here on Thursday. The results of the audit for each gram panchayat were read out. This included not only discrepancies and irregularities but also...
More »Media pressure may help speed up food security moves by S Viswanathan
More than two years have passed and there seems to be no progress worth speaking about in making the promised law that will guarantee food for the people. The promise came from the UPA-2 as part of its election manifesto in 2009. It was a time of recovery from a time of economic troubles. The impact of the global economic slowdown came on top of the agrarian crisis and the...
More »‘Delay in NREGA payments causing distress migration’ by Priyadarshi Siddhanta
The Planning Commission has raised concerns over people migrating from the countryside to cities in search of jobs. The Plan panel says that this ‘distress migration’ is mainly due to delayed disbursement of wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, or MGNREGA. It has asked the rural development ministry to expressly strengthen the Business Correspondent model to make payments to workers under the flagship welfare scheme. In the...
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