The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act — or MGNREGA as it is commonly known — has completed five years. Since its inception, I remember how joyous I was while becoming part of the process of its being passed in the Lok Sabha. In fact, we were restless for the delay in the presenting of the standing committee's report. I felt it took too long a time in deliberating...

There are many critics and sceptics with respect to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which came into being because of political pressure that managed to overcome quite strenuous opposition from some of the most influential policy making circles. It is likely that much of this criticism is not really because of the declared reasons, like fiscal costs (which are thus far very little) and potential leakage. Rather,...

The law providing 100 days of wage employment has been heard more for its abuse than its benefits in the five years of its existence. However, we take a look at some positive examples of district authorities experimenting with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Except in the case of Sikkim, the examples show the law being implemented entirely by the district authorities rather than the local Panchayat. In...

With Assembly elections just about a year away, the Mayawati government seems to have realised the importance of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. On Thursday, hundreds of government officers fanned out in around 30 districts of the state for holding special camps to issue jobs card to the poor who have been left out in the past. The holding of camps is part of the campaign which was launched on...

The late Rajiv Gandhi famously, or infamously, once claimed that only 15 per cent of the funds allocated to welfare programmes ever reached the intended beneficiaries. The rest leaked enroute, entering the pockets of an assortment of intermediaries. This is a thought that the Union finance minister must always remember, especially when he sits down to allocate funds for an assortment of subsidies and some of the high-profile spending programme...