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...

The UPA flagship MGNREGA will now be used to address Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s concerns over lack of development in the tribal areas. Taking note of the lack of coordination between various implementing agencies involved in tribal welfare, the rural development ministry wants the various schemes under the ministry of tribal affairs to be converged with MGNREGA. To explore this model, the rural development ministry has set up a working group to...

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...

Seeking to build on the strengths of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) while, at the same time, eliminating its main deficiencies and shortcomings, the rural development ministry is planning to take UPA government’s flagship project to a new level. A three-day-long workshop of the coordination group attached to the ministry, as also other principal stakeholders, gets underway at the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Rural Development from...