The past couple of months have seen a renewed attack on the National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC has been decried as an unconstitutional, undemocratic, “super-cabinet” where unaccountable “jholawalas” hatch harebrained schemes guaranteed to run the government aground. Another line of criticism has focused on the process of the formation of the NAC, its space within the Indian Constitution, and its capacity to influence policy. The two criticisms merge with...

The ministry of rural development has written to all the states warning them not to go slow or suspend works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act at any point of time in the year. The communication reminding the provisions of the right to work Act comes in the wake of reports that some states are going slow in execution of works under the UPA's flagship social sector programme,...

People in Anini are up in arms, seeking clarification from the Block Development Officer-cum-District Project Coordinator regarding the implementation of MGNREGA in Dibang Valley district. It has been alleged that recently some local people, on behalf of the BDO Anini, are going around the district taking signatures on a paper known as the ‘muster roll’ in official parlance. Reportedly, persons employed to get the signatures are not even official employees...

-The Telegraph   All 208 tea gardens in the Terai and the Dooars today put up notices, saying it would be difficult for them to disburse Wages and rations in the coming weeks if the embargo on the despatch of tea continued. The Progressive Tea Workers’ Union, the labour wing of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad, has been stalling the despatch of tea from gardens since Tuesday to demand a hike in...

-The Times of India   The Union Cabinet on Thursday cleared setting up a national level social security fund for unorganized workers. The proposed National Social Security Fund will have an initial corpus of Rs 1,000 crore and will benefit 43.3 crore workers in the unorganized sector. Unorganized workers form the most significant part of total workers in the country and suffer from cycles of employment and absence of social security...