-The Indian Express In a move that could alter the labour-intensive nature of the rural job guarantee scheme, the Finance Ministry has suggested changing the wage-material ratio from the current 60:40 - as provided under the Act - to an equal 50:50. This comes amid widespread criticism from several quarters of previous Rural Development minister Nitin Gadkari's proposal to change the labour-material ratio to 51:49. According to officials in the Rural Development Ministry,...
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Storm in teacup: Food Security Act may leave 19 lakh families in Assam's tea gardens hungry -Simantik Dowerah
-FirstPost.com Uncertainty over the supply of subsidised foodgrain to over 19 lakh families in Assam whose livelihoods are linked to work in the tea gardens is threatening to not only spark dissent among workers but has got the industry leaders worried. To understand the impact, consider the case of Deepak Daori and Monica Daori - both workers at Mokalbari Tea Estate in Dibrugarh district. "We are worried that the our monthly ration might...
More »350-tonne oil spill by Bangladeshi ship threatens Sunderbans -Krishnendu Mukherjee & Rakhi Chakrabarty
-The Times of India KOLKATA: The fragile Sundarbans region stared at an ecological nightmare after a vessel carrying 350 tonnes of oil crashed, spilling the toxic liquid over an 80-sq-km area along the Sela river in Bangladesh and threatening a sanctuary of rare Irrawaddy and Ganges dolphins. The site, near Mongla port, is about 100km from the Kolkata port and Indian officials are on alert over the possibility of the oil slick...
More »Activists against proposed changes in MNREGA
-PTI A post card campaign will be launched from tommorrow by some city-based activists against the Centre's proposal to make changes in the MNREGA scheme which will affect the poor people. As per the plan, around 1,000 letters will be sent to the PMO everyday till May 1, asking the government not to bring any changes in the scheme. "The NDA government proposed a 15 per cent reduction in the budget allocation...
More »Modi U-turn for the better: Changing NREGA would have been a mistake -Rajesh Pandathil
-FirstPost.com Not all U-turns are bad. Some are good, like the one by the NDA government on the MNREGA, also called NREGA . For the uninitiated, the new NDA government had about three months back proposed to make changes to the pro-poor scheme launched by the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance. According to media reports that cited a circular, the proposal was to amend the NREG Act by restricting the area of work...
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