Barely a month after Sonia Gandhi flagged concerns over shortcomings in the implementation of UPA’s flagship MNREGA scheme and sought strengthening of social audit done by the gram sabha, as mandated under the Act, the government is looking at the scope of amending the Act to allow for better accounting scrutiny by the Central agencies. A meeting convened by Law Minister Veerappa Moily with Rural Development Ministry officials Monday examined...
More »SEARCH RESULT
MGNREGA activist who exposed many cases of corruption found dead by Ipsita Pati
“His death is a planned conspiracy by middlemen and contractors” Niyamat Ansari, a member of the NREGA Sahayata Kendra, was found beaten to death in Jharkhand's Latehar district, 110 km from here, on Thursday. He is said to have exposed many cases of corruption by local contractors in work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). R.K. Malik Inspector-General (operations) said some unidentified persons barged into Mr. Ansari's house...
More »Orissa govt didn't submit assurance on Posco project
Though a month has elapsed since the Centre accorded conditional clearance to the Posco project, Orissa government finds it tough to submit its assurance to the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) on proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act , 2006. While giving conditional clearance to the Rs 52,000 crore project on January 31, the Centre had sought written assurance from the state government on the implementation of the...
More »Maoist hand in Drèze aide’s death
Two aides of economist Jean Drèze were targeted by unscrupulous contractors, suspected to have been backed by Maoists, for exposing rampant corruption in the Centre’s flagship rural job scheme in a Latehar village late last night. Niyamat Ansari died after he was beaten up mercilessly by a 12-member gang at Jerua village, 130km from the state capital, but his friend and colleague Bhukan Singh had a narrow escape as he wasn’t...
More »Panchayats told to hold regular meetings on rural jobs scheme by Ruhi Tewari
The government wants to make its rural jobs guarantee programme more open to scrutiny and empower its beneficiaries by getting Panchayats (village councils) to periodically disclose information about the scheme’s functioning in that area. To this end, the ministry of rural development has issued an advisory to village Panchayats, making it mandatory for them to convene regular gram sabhas (village general bodies). The initiative is also aimed at making the scheme...
More »