-MSN   The Rural Development Ministry has turned down a request from the Agriculture ministry to suspend MGNREGA projects during peak farming seasons because of labour shortage. Agriculture Secretary P K Basu had written to the Rural Development Ministry to this effect recently. He had sought amendment in the job guarantee scheme so that agriculture is not effected particularly during sowing and harvesting period, sources in the Rural Development Ministry said. The letter had...

Matter begins: What is the impact of the National Rural Employment Guarentee Act on rural wages? That is the question that the pundits are asking today. It's a query which feeds into a larger question. Six years have passed since NREGA became a legal reality. What is its village-level impact? It's a complex question to answer. NREGA undertakes to provide employment to anyone who asks for it. Which makes it...

As it is drafted, the Bill actually deprives people, and the State governments, of existing rights on multiple counts. The Food Security Bill finalised by a Group of Ministers should not be accepted by Parliament in its present form. The overriding negative features of the proposed legislation far outweigh its positive initiatives. The framework itself is questionable since the Central government usurps all powers to decide the numbers, criteria and schemes...

Pune : The Union Government’s advice to states to suspend employment guarantee activities during peak seasons might just be hours old, but the district administration seems to have implemented that much earlier. If the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) 2005 data on website maintained by the National Informatics Centre is to be trusted, the district has not generated any employment over the past two fiscals — 2009-’10 and 2010-...

Though it remains susceptible to leakages and can do with greater oversight, the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (NREGS) appears to have boosted rural incomes by providing job seekers at least 100 days' guaranteed labour every financial year. That's why the Union rural development ministry's reported advisory to states to 'informally' suspend NREGS operations during peak farming season isn't a very good idea. For starters, the move would be legally...