-TheWire.in It will greatly bring down the poverty reduction impact of the programme, harm the construction of much-needed rural infrastructure and dramatically diminish the labourers’ bargaining power vis-à-vis the farmers. At the recent fourth governing council meeting of the NITI Aayog, the government announced the formation of a sub-group of chief ministers to propose ways of linking the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with agricultural activities. The group is headed...

-The Telegraph Chandigarh: The Congress government in Punjab, like the Mamata Banerjee dispensation in Bengal, has refused to implement the flagship health insurance scheme of the Centre. While the other north Indian states under BJP rule - Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir - have signed the memorandum of understanding with the Union health ministry to implement the Ayushman Bharat scheme, the Amarinder Singh government in Punjab has refused to...

-PTI A constitution bench would be set up to hear a clutch of petitions challenging the Centre's decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing various services and government welfare schemes, the Supreme Court today said.   A bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said the larger bench would commence hearing on these petitions in the last week of November this year.   Earlier today, the apex...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday came down hard on the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government for challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar+ and emphasised that a state cannot challenge a law passed by the Union government. "The controversy over Aadhaar needs examination but state government can't file petition against a law passed by Parliament," a bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said. The bench...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Mamata Banerjee government has petitioned the Supreme Court against the Centre's alleged push to make Aadhaar cards mandatory for extending the benefits of social welfare schemes. The petition is scheduled to be heard on Monday. The matter has been listed before the bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan along with another petition, moved by social activist Raghav Tankha, that challenges the government's order to link...