Public employment created by non-NREGA public works may just be giving more bang for the buck than NREGA, around a fourth more going by the findings of the NSS survey on employment in 2007-08. In which case, the finance minister would do well to keep the spending for NREGA under check. According to the NSS 2007-08, a total of 477 million mandays of work were created under non-NREGA public works and...
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Bihar plans health cards for 3.4 cr children under 14 years by Santosh Singh
Bihar is set to become the first state in the country to issue health cards to 3.4 crore children in the age group of 0-14 years. Besides offering OPD facilities and free medicines, the health card, which will be vaild for five years, will also facilitate specialised medical treatment in premier hospitals like AIIMS, PGIMER Chandigarh and SGPGI Lucknow. While some states already have health card schemes for school-going children in...
More »One step forward
The government has taken the first concrete step to start disbursing subsidies for things like kerosene, cooking gas and fertilisers to individuals, families and farmers by direct cash transfer. A task force under the leadership of Nandan Nilekani, who heads the Unique Identification Authority of India, has been given the target of getting a pilot going by the end of the year. The transfer system will piggyback on the solution...
More »Manmohan Singh imposes gag on India’s poverty data by Iftikhar Gilani
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has imposed a gag on India’s poverty data, saying no information must go out until it is vetted by the Planning Commission. The gag order applies to all central ministries and departments and is apparently triggered by the embarrassment over multiple data on Indians falling under the socially damning Below Poverty Line (BPL). The official line is that the government wants to have uniformity on all data and...
More »Poor paddy procurement adds to Bihar farmers' woes
Surinder Mahato is a worried man. A small farmer on the outskirts of Bihar's capital Patna, he laboured throughout last year's drought to ensure that his farm's output of rice was not affected. But he now stares in distress at the stacks of paddy lying in his hut. 'I am waiting to sell my crop, but due to the government negligence, I am forced to sell at throwaway prices to local...
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