Justice N Ramamohana Rao of the High Court on Monday directed the central government to explain within one week as to how it could say that the wages payable to the workers under the NREGA scheme can be lower than the wages fixed as per the Minimum Wages Act. The judge was dealing with a writ petition and a resultant contempt case filed by one Ajay Kumar of AP Vyavasaya Vruthidarula...

An inter-state tussle triggered by a national issue has brought to light how amnesia has afflicted the Orissa government. Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik had demanded three days ago that a public hearing should be held in villages that will be affected by the proposed Polavaram hydel project in neighbouring Andhra. Documents available with The Telegraph suggest that the same Naveen government had a year ago rejected a request by Andhra to...

The Centre and states may vie to take credit for the MNREGS, but when it comes to footing the Bill for the job guarantee scheme, the story is different. Asking the Centre to notify new, revised wage rates “at the earliest” is, interestingly, a Congress-ruled state—Rajasthan. It also happens to be the home state of minister for rural development C P Joshi. Rajasthan principal secretary CS Rajan last week sent a letter...

The RTI activist organisations have taken their protest against the latest order of the UP government to move vigilance department out of the purview of the RTI Act a step ahead. A writ has been filed on Tuesday by the National RTI Forum in the Allahabad High Court, Lucknow bench. The writ is against the notification dated September 22, 2010 issued by principal secretary, Vigilance, UP through which the vigilance department...

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which has revitalised the rural landscape across the country, stands diminished in the land of its birth, Rajasthan, hijacked and held to ransom by vested interests and stripped of its backbone of an open social audit. As the Andhra experience has shown, there is one ingredient that can bring back its vitality: institutionalising citizen audits. But, is the Rajasthan government up to...