-The Hindu Business Line DHARMASTHALA, JUNE 23: Chartered Accountants will begin certification of accounts under MgNREGA scheme at village panchayat level from April 2013. Addressing presspersons on the sidelines of the 30-year celebrations of the Shri Kshetra Rural Development Project (SKDRDP) at Dharmasthala in Dakshina Kannada district on Friday, Mr Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister for Rural Development, said that the accounts of the 2012-13 will be audited at village panchayat levels by...

-The Times of India UPA's flagship rural guarantee scheme is performing fitfully in terms of work days, wages and coverage, amply confirming rural development minister Jairam Ramesh's fears that the programme has become a scheme for digging ditches. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee, UPA's outreach to the poor, is not meeting critical parameters and is crying out for reform with questions about the utility a Rs 36,000-crore a year budget...

-The Times of India DALTONGANJ: Almost 725 incomplete wells being constructed under the MgNREGA scheme in Palamu will now wait for the winter to restart the work. These wells were dug up to five feet depth or even less than that. Now with the rain around, the Palamu administration has put an embargo on any further digging up as the rainwater force the wells to collapse. Palamu DC Pooja Singhal has confirmed...

-The Times of India   Garhwa: Irregularities involving forged payment of labourers in construction of a road under the MgNREGA have come to light at Gobardaha village in Meral block of the district. The matter has been exposed after information was sought under the RTI Act by social activistDilawar Khan. Deputy commissioner Rajendra Pratap Sinha has taken the matter seriously. Under the scheme number 161112, construction of a road from Gobardaha-Chatania to Aqlim...

I read Aman Sethi's piece on the Saranda Development Plan (“Nine months on, police camps sole development in Saranda plan”, June 4) with great interest but with greater anguish. Before I deal with his main charge — that private mining interests are behind the SDP — I want to lay out what the SDP is all about. It is the first systematic experiment in combining a security-oriented and development-focussed approach...