New rural development minister Jairam Ramesh is working to overhaul the United Progressive Alliance's six-year old flagship rural jobs programme to rid it of all 'manmade' flaws and make the job entitlement more demand driven. The Mahatma GandhiNational Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNERGA), which costs the government Rs 40,000 crore a year - the largest spend on any social welfare scheme - played a key role in catapulting theUPA government...
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Jairam to tour Naxal-hit areas-by Sreelatha Menon
New rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, who declared his intent to focus on Naxal-hit areas on the day he took charge, is set to visit these. Ramesh, who his ministry officials describe as a man in a hurry, is setting off to Raipur, Jagdalpur and a few more places in Chhattisgarh. The visit is likely this week, sources said. At the signing of a loan agreement today with the World Bank...
More »NHRC favours social audit of govt''s flagship schemes
-PTI Critical over the leakage of funds meant for the rural poor, the National Human Rights Commission has suggested that the government should conduct a social audit of flagship programmes like MGNREGA and ICDS to have an assessment on what is the impact on ground. A top NHRC official said the government''s various studies and reports had shown that there was no match between the programmes and performance as the authorities...
More »Licence to loot by Ravi Sharma
A host of steel-manufacturing units are keen to set up plants in Karnataka, and all want captive mines. SOUTH KOREA'S Posco is not the only steel-maker keen to do business in Karnataka. The State's estimated 9,000 million tonnes of good-quality iron ore reserves, which is the second largest in India, the State government's assurances on a smooth land acquisition process, the availability of water and the promise of speedy regulatory clearances...
More »Naxal fight takes development route
-The Times of India Maoist-affected districts across the country might have seen years of neglect by successive governments, but a new Central scheme - Integrated Action Plan (IAP) - under the UPA-II is fast filling up the 'critical gap' in those 'deficit zones' through taking up a number of development projects. As many as 67,072 basic infrastructure projects across 60 districts in nine states have been taken up at Rs 2,740...
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