Difficult times call for difficult measures. Pushed into a corner by an unsustainable fiscal deficit and various sectors and programs (including the proposed food security legislation) screaming for a greater share of the budget pie, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in India has been forced to do what it might not have otherwise—reduce its marquee job guarantee scheme’s allocation in a big way for the first time. In one...
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Inventing NREGA 2.0
-Live Mint Never in the history of India has a welfare programme of such scale been launched before. As the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) enters its seventh year, its statistics are staggering. In 2011-12, 37.8 million households were provided employment and 1,208 million persondays of work were generated. In its scale and ambition, the programme is pharaonic. If the programme succeeds in its mission—and that is still a...
More »Nanded: MGNREGA success boosts water conservation
-Zee News A successful use of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) in Nanded, one of the most backward districts of Maharashtra, has seen groundwater levels improving dramatically over the past three years. Shrikar Pardeshi, District Collector, received an award from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for "Effective Initiative under MGNREGA" for 2010-11 a few days ago. "(Over last three years) The groundwater level in the district has increased by 9 meters. The...
More »Crackdown on anti-mega dam protesters sparks violence in Assam by Sushanta Talukdar
A late-night crackdown by the police and paramilitary forces on anti-mega dam protesters in Lakhimpur district triggered raging protests at several places in Assam on Monday. The police arrested more than 200 protesters, who since December 16 had been blocking vehicles transporting equipment and construction materials, through National Highway 52, for the NHPC's 2,000-MW Lower Subonsiri hydroelectric project at Gerukamukh in Arunachal Pradesh. To protest the police action, five organisations, including the...
More »Mullaperiyar Dam: Oommen Chandy to meet PM today, VS Achuthanandan to fast on Dec 7
-The Economic Times Stepping up Kerala's demand for a new dam at Mullaperiyar, chief minister Oommen Chandy said he will meet the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Thursday, even as the opposition leader VS Achuthanandan decided to go on a fast on December 7 on the issue. In an attempt to find a solution to the vexing issue, Chandy would write to his counter part in Tamil Nadu about...
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