Amid the furore over misappropriation of funds meant for development, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has proposed bringing all rural development programmes worth about Rs 90,000 crore under the ambit of the government auditor. Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh welcomed the proposition after he met CAG today to discuss the social audit of the government's flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in all states. The minister said the matter would...

LUCKNOW: In Uttar Pradesh, over Rs 3,700 crore of central health funds may have been systematically looted over the past six years. Many people, including Rahul Gandhi, had spoken of the NRHM bungle, but the size of the scam indicates that not only were officials at the level of CMO and above involved, but also this could not have been carried out without the knowledge and support of their masters....

To promote self-employment among people living below poverty line (BPL), particularly women, the rural development ministry proposes to set up a dedicated national bank for women self-help groups (SHGs) and also lower the interest rate on the credit they receive from any nationalized bank. Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday said he will soon take up both these proposals with the finance ministry. “We have proposed a detailed paper for a...

Last week, the census commissioner released the second round of data, which showed that the move towards towns and cities received a fresh impetus in the decade ended 2011, as a result of which the country achieved a laudable milestone: a little under one in three Indians now lives in areas classified as urban, reversing a lull apparent in the previous two decades. This is something to be welcomed as in...

The ministry of agriculture has written to the ministry of rural development asking them to suspend Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) projects during peak farming seasons because of labour unavailability. The ministry of rural development headed by Jairam Ramesh has still to take a decision on this matter. The secretary of agriculture P.K. Basu in his letter has rung the alarm bells by pointing out that the ministry’s assessment...