-PTI   Writing letters is the only option left to him to persuade Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati to order a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in implementation of MGNREGA in the state Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said on Friday. Ramesh, who wrote letters to Uttar Pradesh government, including Mayawati, favouring a CBI inquiry into the matter, said the Centre could not conduct a CBI probe into the matter without the concurrence...

-Express News Service   Union Rural development Minister Jairam Ramesh has rejected the charge of being politically motivated in seeking Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh government’s consent for a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the implementation of the rural job guarantee scheme (NREGS). He reiterated that a CBI inquiry is the only option to send a strong message against instances of irregularities in the state. Ramesh made this point in his letter to Uttar...

-The Economist   A maverick minister lays into a hallowed programme IT LOOKS like risky politics for Jairam Ramesh, who runs India’s biggest civilian ministry, in charge of Rural development, to lash out at his own government’s flagship welfare scheme. Mr Ramesh, who got his cabinet post in July, has sparked a row in the past week over corruption and poor results within a public programme that guarantees 100 days of paid work...

-The Hindustan Times   Rural development Jayant Patil on Tuesday said that implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) should be in the hands of his department instead of the Congress-controlled Water Conservation and Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) department, in the “best interests of the state.” Patil statement comes in the wake of Union Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh’s missive to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, stating that the implementation...

Union Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh’s suggestion to bring the national rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGS) under the state Rural development department has widened the rift between the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Jairam wrote to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, suggesting that the EGS be brought under the state Rural development department (RDD) for effective implementation in September this year, but in a reply, dated October 7, Chavan bluntly...