-Down to Earth The focus of MGNREGA has, over time, shifted from employment creation to asset creation The funds allocated in the Union budget 2021-22 for implementing schemes under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) were exhausted within the first half of this financial year. The budgetary provision for 2021-22 was Rs 73,000 crore, of which Rs 79,810 crore has been spent. Many workers didn’t get paid; it may take...
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Supreme Court clears Covid aid, lays down norms
-The Telegraph The relatives of patients who succumb to Covid in the future will also be entitled to the Rs 50,000 ex gratia, according to the order The Supreme Court on Monday approved Rs 50,000 as ex gratia for relatives of the Covid dead over and above other compensation that they are entitled to or have already been given by respective state governments or authorities. The ex gratia should be disbursed by the...
More »More than 2.57 lakh people evicted in India during the pandemic; 21 people evicted from their homes every hour, says latest report
-Press release by Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) dated 9th September, 2021 Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), today, released its new report on forced evictions in India. Titled, Forced Evictions in India in 2020: A Grave Human Rights Crisis During the Pandemic, this report presents comprehensive data and an analysis of forced evictions and demolitions of homes of the urban and rural poor across the country in 2020. It...
More »COVID-19 is not a ‘one-time disaster’, like earthquake or flood, Centre says in SC -Krishnadas Rajagopal
-The Hindu It is an ongoing pandemic which will continue to attack in waves and a ‘broader approach’ is essential, says Ministry of Home Affairs in 189-page affidavit. The COVID-19 pandemic is not a “one-time disaster”, like an earthquake or a flood, where victims can be compensated with just money, the Centre has told the Supreme Court. The virus is an ongoing pandemic which will continue to attack in waves. A “broader approach”...
More »A fatal war on transparency -Aniket Aga and Chitrangada Choudhury
-The Hindu Official secrecy on pandemic policies aggravates a crisis In August 2020, the Modi government constituted the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) as a nodal agency on all matters related to vaccine administration and rollout. Asked under the Right to Information (RTI) Act for details of the NEGVAC’s meetings, the Health Ministry, which anchors the expert group, replied that it does not know where the concerned documents...
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