The UPA Government has widened the scope of its flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to include works related to agriculture, animal husbandry, poultry, drinking water and sanitation. In its initial avatar launched over six years ago, the NREGA was limited only to works concerning water and soil conservation, afforestation and land development. It was largely seen as a subsistence dole for the rural people in the lean...
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Universal healthcare plan may be nixed-Sahil Makkar
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is likely to run into a debate on public health policy after the Planning Commission moved to nix a proposal to include healthcare in the list of public entitlements such as education and food. Central to the proposal—initiated by a high-level expert group (HLEG) headed by K. Srinath Reddy, a leading advocate of preventive cardiology and president of the Public Health Foundation of India—was the...
More »UPA makes its case for cash transfers by Remya Nair & Surabhi Agarwal
India moved a step closer to implementing cash transfers of direct subsidies and social welfare payments after a high-level panel presented the blueprint for effecting it through an Aadhaar-based payment gateway. Accepting the report, which details how all payments and cash transfers can be made electronically, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee indicated that it will be the key to plug leakages and ensure more targeted spending under the government’s social welfare programmes. The...
More »Government, judiciary not interested in RTI disclosures: CIC Satyananda Mishra by Nidhi Sharma
At a time when the Congress-led UPA Government has been battling with Team Anna over a comprehensive anti-corruption legislation, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has taken on the government and the judiciary over the transparency issue saying not even a single public authority has been following disclosure norms. Even six years after the implementation of the Right to Information Act 2005, the final appellate authority for the legislation feels that the...
More »Ghost beneficiaries galore under NREGA in Amreli village by Vijaysinh Parmar
Madhubhai Koli of Khambha village in Amreli district worked for 10 days under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in 2009. He was paid Rs 1,000 that were deposited in his account. What is shocking is that Koli died way back in 2006. The much-publicized employment programme of the UPA Government reeks of severe corruption in this village of Saurashtra. And, a Right to Information (RTI) application by...
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