Media persons from all over the country have a great opportunity to witness the dance of democracy in Jaipur beginning Gandhi Jayanti. A peaceful ‘dharna’ organized by grassroots organizations like the MKSS and RTI Manch, among others, is already attracting some of India’s top writers, editors, development thinkers and civil society activists, besides thousands of common people from all across Rajasthan. The movement will continue indefinitely from October 2 onwards...

  The sea change that India’s national scheme for rural employment guarantee has accomplished is hard to fathom, its vastness touching the lives or more than 100 million people. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 (NREGA, subsequently renamed after Mahatma Gandhi, or MGNREGA) was a landmark in Indian legislation. Under the act, as of April 2008, for the first time in India’s history, all rural citizens have a legal right...

After taking on Suresh Kalmadi and Co on the Commonwealth Games, Rajya Sabha MP and former PANCHAYATI RAJ minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has now trained his guns on the UPA government and the Planning Commission for bureaucratising all flagship programmes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the National Rural Health Mission. In a free-wheeling interview with ET, Mr Aiyar said instead of relying on PANCHAYATI RAJ institutions for better...

  The sarpanches of Rajasthan who have been opposing social audit by NGOs in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) now have a supporter at the Centre. Union minister for rural development and PANCHAYATI RAJ, C P Joshi on Thursday said the Act governing the scheme had provisions that the audit be done by the gram sabha. "Section 13(B) of the Act provides that the gram sabha have...

Qualified rural youth now have a chance to get a government job, if only on contract, with 12 lakh technical vacancies opening up in gram panchayats across the country. The PANCHAYATI RAJ ministry headed by C.P. Joshi has decided that each gram panchayat will be allowed to recruit between four and six persons, including engineers, accountants and computer technicians. There are 2.5 lakh panchayats in the country. The state selection commissions will...