Sometime this month, Justice N Ramamohana Rao of the Andhra Pradesh High Court will deliver a verdict that will directly impact earnings of the 114 million people who work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the Central government's work guarantee programme. The verdict will also indirectly impact earnings of the 400 million workers and labourers who toil in India's factories and fields for 'minimum wages'. The question Justice Rao...
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Maharashtra way behind in budget transparency by Meena Menon
A study ranks States on availability of budget documents, completeness of information These States should adopt practices to improve public access to budget information They should also produce a key to budget documents and a statement on funds Maharashtra ranks seventh among 10 States in a study of transparency in State budgets released in February. The State plan does not provide much information on the Scheduled Caste sub-plan and does not share details of...
More »Taming international food inflation by Anwarul Hoda
What can make a real difference to food prices is determined international action to increase food production in regions that are richly endowed with land and water resources High food inflation has been the source of major concern in India for more than a year. Soaring food prices have been the cause of unease internationally as well. A Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) press release of 3 March, 2011 indicates that...
More »CAG raps Bihar for poor financial reporting, slack control system by Shoumojit Banerjee
Massive backlog in submission of Detailed Contingent Bills 1,021 cases of misappropriation, defalcation, theft amounting to Rs. 407.97 crore as of March 2010 Large number of unfurnished utilisation certificates for grants to the tune of Rs.4,527.77 crore The pendency of Detailed Contingent (DC) Bills, once a subject of a free-for-all in the Bihar Assembly last year, has popped up again in the Comptroller and Auditor-General's report tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday. The audit...
More »NGO reveals Orissa, UP NREGA discrepancy by Debabrata Mohanty
About four years after its first survey on the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Orissa's hinterlands that showed large-scale defalcation of money, the Delhi-based NGO Centre for Environment and Food Security today in its second performance audit revealed that 67 per cent of very poor Dalit and tribal households in Orissa and UP did not get even a single day of the NREGS employment during previous...
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