The Centre’s flagship welfare plan has failed to turn the tide on a key problem: rural migration. The disconcerting admission about the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, or MNREGA, came in a paper released today by Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on the main challenges facing the programme and the reforms required. Checking distress migration is a key objective of the scheme, other than providing at least 100 days...

The rural development ministry has proposed several changes in the rural job guarantee programme to ensure timely payment of wages and eradicate graft at a time when the Congress party-led ruling alliance has come under fire for poor governance and its failure to tackle corruption. The ministry has listed nine challenges to the proper functioning of the programme and proposed possible modifications in a note. The challenges include ensuring demand-driven legal...

At a time of national uproar over corruption and the Lokpal Bill, the government is proposing to enact a law making it compulsory for every ministry and department to act within 30 days on complaints from the public. The law will set up a mechanism similar to the Right to Information (RTI) Act, and dovetails with Anna Hazare’s key demand of a “citizens’ charter” to deal with public grievances. Under the proposed...

At a time when protest against corruption is making headlines across the country, crusaders for people’s rights are at the receiving end in Bihar. An RTI activist from Rohtas, Ashok Paswan (49), has allegedly received a threat to his life for seeking information on alleged financial irregularities in disbursement of loans to farmers by a nationalised bank in the district. “I received a call on my mobile around 5.30pm on Friday. The...

People’s body gram panchayat will be the new administrator for implementing the world's biggest social security programme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee, instead of government officials. In a new avatar, the government has approved new guarantees under MGNREGA including registration for job through a call centres, mandatory payment of wages within 15 days at the doorstep  and providing dedicated staff at gram panchayat to implement and monitor the scheme. The...