The Centre may create a new category under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 for resolving the conflict with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 in implementaing wages rates. At present, wages under MGNREGA is linked to the consumer price index. However, it is less than the notified minimum wages for agricultural labour in six states-Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Mizoram and Rajasthan. The rural development ministry has...

-Express News Service   Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has rejected the charge of being politically motivated in seeking Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh government’s consent for a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the implementation of the rural job guarantee scheme (NREGS). He reiterated that a CBI inquiry is the only option to send a strong message against instances of irregularities in the state. Ramesh made this point in his letter to Uttar...

Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh’s suggestion to bring the national rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGS) under the state rural development department has widened the rift between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Jairam wrote to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, suggesting that the EGS be brought under the state rural development department (RDD) for effective implementation in September this year, but in a reply, dated October 7, Chavan bluntly...

The tribal people of Chhattisgarh are in an extremely dangerous situation, caught as they are between the state forces and the Maoists. THIRTY-SIX-YEAR-OLD Soni Sori, an Adivasi schoolteacher from Chhattisgarh, was arrested in Delhi on October 4 on charges of acting as a conduit between the Essar group and the Maoists, the former accused of giving “protection money” to the latter. On October 7, she moved the Delhi High Court to...

In his letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, demanding a CBI inquiry into the alleged bungling of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) funds in the state, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has specifically named seven districts where large sums have been spent on purchasing toys, calendars, tents and other such items of questionable relevance. National and state quality monitors have in their reports mentioned several instances...