-Macroscan.com The continuous cutting down of the financial outlays for the programmes like MNREGA clearly indicates the central government's appalling disregard for its legal obligations. Please click here to access * This article was originally published in the Frontline, Print edition: February 5, 2016. ...

-The Indian Express A renewed funding squeeze may undermine MGNREGA’s recent revival, fear civil society activists. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme which guarantees 100 days of wage employment per year to rural households, may have staged a revival in the last two quarters after showing a declining trend in person-days generation during the first year of the Narendra Modi government. But the turnaround could well be temporary,...

-The Indian Express Twelve states presently show a negative balance with long overdue unpaid wages, threatening the continuation of the scheme. Despite the recent revival, there is crisis looming for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) as the Rural Development Ministry has exhausted more than 95 per cent of its budget provision for the scheme. The fund squeeze has forced Rural Development Minister Birender Singh to write to Finance...

-The Hindu Rural Development Minister asks Jaitley to release Rs. 5,000 crore more With the demand by States for the release of money under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to clear pending liabilities and dues getting more persistent, Rural Development Minister Birender Singh has written to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, urging him to immediately release the additional Rs.5,000 crore as promised. “Since MGNREGS is a demand-driven wage employment programme...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Nearly 18 million villagers registered under the rural job scheme face the prospect of toiling without wages as funds have dried up amid a drought-triggered surge in demand for work. Twelve states have run up "negative balances", meaning workers' payments are due, while the rest have exhausted 95 per cent of the funds released to them so far, according to the rural development ministry, which runs the Mahatma...