On February 2, even as Sonia Gandhi was speaking out against corruption in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, a 65-year-old RTI applicant from Bikaner in Rajasthan was brutally attacked after he tried to expose corruption in the MNREGA work. The ex-Sarpanch was allegedly beaten up by supporters of the current Sarpanch. Dudhram had complained to the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) about the allocation of Rs 4 crore for clearing...

-IANS Payment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) should be given within 15 days, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday as Congress chief Sonia Gandhi stressed that the key to the scheme's success was empowering grassroots level organisations.  "In the last six years, we have seen several achievements in the implementation of MNREGA but there are several challenges before us. The biggest worry is that workers get...

-The Economic Times The charges of embezzlement of funds for the rural employment scheme may be contributing to the political battle between the Congress and the BSP in Uttar Pradesh, but it appears that, in real terms, political wrangling does not have any significant effect on its implementation. According to a study by the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, the UP government's lack of ownership of the programme, along with low...

Poor workers are being paid wages as low as Rs 1-10 for a hard day's labour in states like Rajasthan and Karnataka under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme which promises a real wage of Rs 100 per day.  Documents with TOI show that many desperate, poor labourers across the country are being cheated of their hard earned money and the much publicized guaranteed daily wage of Rs 100...

-PTI The government on Monday announced convergence of the Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme with the rural employment guarantee scheme MGNREGA for creating more durable assets in the country.  "Statistics and Programme Implementation Minister Srikant Kumar Jena has approved convergence of MPLAD scheme with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)," an official statement said here.  According to the statement, it was done after government received representations to converge...