The Union rural development secretary, B.K. Sinha, has said that killings of activists working for the betterment of MGNREGS were unique to Jharkhand even though complaints about the implementation of the Centre’s flagship rural job scheme have come in from other states, too. Sinha, who will be visiting Latehar and Bokaro on Saturday to find out more about the murder of NREGS activist Niyamat Ansari, told The Telegraph from Delhi, “We...

More than a hundred officials from various government and non government agencies observed a minute’s silence to pay tribute to slain Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGREGS) activist Niyamat Ansari at a consultation session organised by Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) to discuss the challenges facing the scheme and its future today. Deputy chief minister Hemant Soren, who was the chief guest on the occasion, faced a barrage of...

The budget is a “mixed bag” for the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, said members. It promises to bring in the National Food Security bill that the Congress chief hopes will signpost UPA-II’s continuing commitment to social and economic inclusion in the way that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act did UPA-I. But finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s restatement of the Centre’s position on indexing MNREGA wages to the consumer price...

Good news for Bihar on the economic front. According to the Economic Survey 2010-11, tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, the state’s annual per capita income doubled in five years, gross domestic product (GDP) saw a steady growth and the number of vehicles increased three fold. The annual per capita income went up to Rs 17,590 in 2009-10 against Rs 8,528 in 2004-05. The average GDP growth for the period...

Thanks to the Right to Information Act, 2005, and also the activism of NGOs and of the media, a culture of accountability is growing in the country. That is the good news. However, the media, NGOs and RTI activists can only do so much. They can focus the attention of the public and parliamentarians on egregious scams, but rarely address the systemic flaws that result in leakage of funds. We have...