-The Hindu Union Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh on Friday assured the Lok Sabha that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was not being diluted and added that state governments were also to be blamed for delay in payments. Responding to a discussion in the Lok Sabha on "the reported dilution of MGNREGA," Mr. Singh said payments were getting delayed because many State Governments failed to submit...

-Livemint.com Evaluating the impact of MGNREGA on rural labour markets, and on urban labour markets via seasonal migration Policymakers and academics are actively debating the efficacy of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and whether or not the new government should retain it in its current form in recent research. We have evaluated the impact of MGNREGA on rural labour markets, and on urban labour markets via seasonal migration....

-Economic and Political Weekly India's scheduled tribes are among the most deprived socio-economic groups and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme has great potential in tribal areas. While the Andhra Pradesh government has made an effort to ensure implementation of the scheme in the scheduled areas, the gap between administrative orders and the grass-roots level is wide. This article lists measures that could radically improve implementation of the scheme...

-Frontline The Left and other national parties protest against the NDA government's attempts to dilute the MGNREGS by limiting its budget and reducing its reach. IN a rare show of solidarity, representatives of several political parties took issue with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on its controversial proposal to restructure the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The opposition, which was initially confined to the...

-The Indian Express In a move that could alter the labour-intensive nature of the rural job guarantee scheme, the Finance Ministry has suggested changing the wage-material ratio from the current 60:40 - as provided under the Act - to an equal 50:50. This comes amid widespread criticism from several quarters of previous Rural Development minister Nitin Gadkari's proposal to change the labour-material ratio to 51:49. According to officials in the Rural Development Ministry,...