Even as the state government mulls over the compulsory voting bill, farmers in the tribal Dahod district have decided to boycott the local elections over non-payment of wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). There are about 2,223 such farmers in Fatehpura taluka of Dahod district bordering Rajasthan, who have decided to abstain from voting. Incidentally, police investigation continues in the case in which sarpanchs are alleged to have...

Members of the National Advisory Council (NAC) Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze have accused the UPA government of being “increasingly anti-labour” in their assessement of the national rural employment guarantee programme, on its fifth anniversary. With support from several activists associated with the government’s flagship social sector scheme, they have alleged that the “contractor mafia”is increasingly dominating in the states, minimising the potential to create remunerative employment through the programme. According to...

Peeved at being paid just Re. 1 as their daily wage for the labour they put in under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), workers of Gudlia Gaon under Rupbas Panchayat of Tonk district in Rajasthan are set to tread Bapu's path to protest against the injustice meted out to them. These workers will stage a Satyagraha in Jaipur on October 2 and return the entire money that...

Only eight states have given the mandatory unemployment allowance to workers registered under the rural employment scheme over the past four years and even that for just a fraction of the time they went jobless. The problem adds to the list of complaints about the Congress-led UPA’s showpiece welfare programme. It has come to light in statistics collated by the Union rural development ministry, which runs the scheme. According to the National...

Aruna Roy , member of National Advisory Council, is in the thick of preparations for a truck yatra and dharna to mobilise people for demands relating to rights of weaker sections and systemic improvement of governance.  Bharat Dogra  spoke to her about the need for this mobilization: The general impression is that Rajasthan has a better record of governance. I agree that Rajasthan has an above-average record in the implementation of NREGS,...