-The Telegraph Ranchi: Jharkhand High Court today adjourned a hearing on the Nagri land acquisition controversy till Monday but asked the state to begin a dialogue with villagers who have disrupted construction of campuses of three national academic institutes. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Tatia and Justice Jaya Roy allowed the adjournment since advocate-general Anil Sinha was away in New Delhi, but asked the state government to work out a...

With the threat of a failed monsoon and an impending drought, the need for public works and for greater numbers of workers will arise in many states, says National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy Despite all its seminal achievements, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act is at the receiving end of the most controversial critiques any government programme has received so far. We could perhaps invert this to say...

-The Business Standard   MGNREGA review should be based on more research Both acclaim and accusations have been hurled at the UPA’s landmark scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee programme, or MGNREGA. Usually, the reasons for the criticism or praise are less-than-completely supported. For example, it has been both praised and condemned for providing local wage employment to the jobless, thus curbing outmigration; similarly, it is claimed that the scheme has...

-The Hindu Saving the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) — the centrepiece of UPA-I’s achievements in the social welfare sector — from its many critics in government and the media who view it as a drain on the exchequer will head the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC)’s agenda in the coming months. At a meeting of the reconstituted NAC on Friday, its members discussed the role a re-energised...

'Women in urban slums need a basket of healthcare services to meet their needs' As the Centre mulls a national urban health mission on the lines of the existing National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), a study indicates that the mission may need some tweaking to deliver healthcare services to the urban poor. While women groups and accredited social health activists (ASHAs) have a big role to play in reducing maternal and...