People in Anini are up in arms, seeking clarification from the Block Development Officer-cum-District Project Coordinator regarding the implementation of MGNREGA in Dibang Valley district. It has been alleged that recently some local people, on behalf of the BDO Anini, are going around the district taking signatures on a paper known as the ‘muster roll’ in official parlance. Reportedly, persons employed to get the signatures are not even official employees...

Affluent farmers are exploiting MGNREGS, the central govt’s flagship programme, sending their workers to draw wages whenever they are not required on their farms THE GOVERNMENT seems to be in a fix with its flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) being widely misused even as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) decides to conduct its own independent audit of the scheme along with National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)...

-PTI   Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today suggested the Rajasthan government to implement Banking Correspondent (BC) Model in the state for payment to MGNREGA workers in time. Ramesh, while attending a meeting with Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Minister Bharat Singh and social activist Aruna Roy, he said delay or late payment of wages discourages MGNREGA labourers and attributed this to absence of banks outside district headquarters. He said the BC...

P Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor, The Hindu and 2007 Magsaysay award winner, shares with Pradeep Baisakh his views on the POSCO project, Odisha farmers’ suicides and the National Food Security Bill You have visited Odisha quite often. How, in your view, has it changed in the last 20 years? Inequalities have increased massively. Earlier, we used to hire jeeps which were falling apart. Today, to go to Kalahandi, you have Innovas,...

Ruth Manorama started her work with the urban poor in her youth; there has been no turning back ever since. She is the powerful voice of Dalit women today. Is it easy being a Dalit in India? And a woman at that? Have things changed for the better for the Dalits who constitute roughly 16.23 per cent of our population, since the Constitution of India “cast a special responsibility on the...