Union Rural Development Ministry has invited suggestions from the State Governments on 50 per cent upfront payment of wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) with a view to check complaints of delayed payment to workers. “Other suggestions being considered by the Union Rural Development Ministry to check delayed payments include formation of a committee including workers’ representatives to take work measurements,” said an...

An investigation by the Union Ministry of Rural Development based on a report by The Indian Express has confirmed that the Gujarat government has been illegally diverting MNREGA funds for its own departmental works. Ironically, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had himself stated in New Delhi on Saturday that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) scheme had become a ‘den of corruption’ and that he had asked the...

Tripura has continued to remain on top in implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) while Sikkim came a close second in the 2009-10 fiscal. State Rural Development Minister Jitendra Choudhury told UNI over phone from Delhi today that the State achieved on an average 82 days out of promised 100 days of waged employment to the people residing in the rural areas. Choudhury said the performance evaluation...

The meeting of the standing committee on the rural development ministry on Wednesday saw members, cutting across party lines, pick loopholes, and complain of large-scale corruption, in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The parliamentary panel, which is headed by former Union minister and BJP leader Sumitra Mahajan, had on the discussion table the UPA government’s flagship rural development programme , and members voiced their...

In this land of rolling hills, made lush by the monsoon, traffic ceases after dusk. So it is unusual to hear jeeps running through the night on the winding roads of tribal south Rajasthan. Through the day, the local police, villagers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are out in force, trying to stop what they can only slow—the mass trafficking of children across the border into Gujarat from the Rajasthan districts that...