The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has been snubbed once again by the government, this time by the tribal affairs ministry. The ministry rejected all recommendations made by the council to reform the implementation of the Forest Rights Act — the UPA's flagship programme and law to give land rights back to tribals and forest dwellers. The National Advisory Council had recommended strong measures for restoration of forest lands to...
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Steep drop in representation for OBCs, minorities in panchayats by Rishikesh Bahadur Desai
MLC plans to approach Karnataka High Court seeking annulment of ZP, TP polls The State Government's Ordinance limiting political reservation in panchayat bodies to 50 per cent has not only reduced seats for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) but has also decreased the number of minority members in the rural local bodies. A study of the zilla and taluk panchayat election results available on the State Election Commission's website, www.karsec.gov.in, reveals that OBC...
More »NREGS cost rises steeply by Sreelatha Menon
The government’s bill for funding the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has risen steeply, due to its decision to revise wage rates under these projects and to link these to the inflation rate. The government had agreed to indexation, but not to activists’ demand to pay at each state’s set minimum wage rates, indexed to inflation. The wage rates continue to be delinked from the statutory minimums applicable; in many...
More »30% pay hike for workers under NREGS
The Central government has revised wages of agricultural labourers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The new wages are based on the consumer price index (CPI), as suggested by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and are retrospectively effective from January 1, 2011. Linking wages to CPI has enhanced them from 17% to 30%. The revised salaries will benefit over 50 million people across India. The base wage, which was...
More »‘Ensure proper use of funds of MNREGA'
MP Ramesh Jigjinagi has instructed the officers concerned to ensure that the funds released under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) are utilised properly and jobs are provided to the needy in rural areas of the district. Speaking after reviewing various development works taken up under Central funds here on Thursday, he said that employment cards provided under the scheme should be renewed every year to stop misuse of...
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