-The Times of India   Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said states should invoke the penalty clause against government officials for not doing their work under the job scheme. Ramesh said rules should be framed to activate section 25 of MGNREGA, which seeks to impose penalty of up to Rs 1,000 on lax officials. He said the clause has remained dormant in most states. Reforms to make the job scheme effective have...

Long promised by the UPA government, the food security bill will be tabled in parliament in December this year. However, the National Advisory Council (NAC), which drafted the proposal, is tussling with the government over the “dilution and misdirection” of the Bill. The final Bill diverges from the original NAC draft on key issues: adoption of alternatives to the PDS such as cash transfers, the risk of inflation due to...

The Centre’s proposed land acquisition law will include a provision to create a land bank, one of the key demands made by Mamata Banerjee. Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh will meet the Bengal chief minister in Calcutta tomorrow and inform her about the provisions of the redrafted bill, which the Union cabinet is to take up on Monday. Mamata has been advocating the creation of a land bank that would specify areas...

The government will recast the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, to give it a welfare edge, following criticism that it was disconnected from people's concern over corruption, high food prices and inflation. The attempt will be to make it more responsive to people's needs and increase earnings of the rural poor. The reform attempts to make the scheme truly demand-based, besides addressing issues of fraud, misuse of funds, corruption...

-The Economic Times   The Union cabinet is likely to clear the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 next week and it is likely to be tabled in Parliament in the ongoing monsoon session itself. Minister of rural development Jairam Ramesh met with nine cabinet ministers on Thursday to finalise the contents of the draft bill. These include finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, home minister P Chidambaram, minister for tribal affairs Kishore Chand...