-The Indian Express In a damning criticism of the UPA government's flagship rural job guarantee scheme, the rural Development Ministry has said the scheme was reduced to "yet another government programme exploited for pure partisan purpose" and through which "participating agencies and individuals" seek "personal benefit". An internal note prepared by the office of the rural Development Minister Nitin Gadkari has claimed MGNREGA has "earned quite a bad name" due to a...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union rural development ministry today highlighted the findings of select studies to defend its plan to modify the rural job guarantee scheme and answer critics who have accused it of trying to dilute the programme. A ministry note that cited these studies said the Mahatma Gandhi National rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) needed reforms to increase the creation of productive and durable assets and reduce politics and...

-The Indian Express We want Prime Minister Narendra Modi to succeed in his national campaign to tackle the vast problems of the poor in Bharat. But his one-time contractor turned Union minister for rural development is succeeding in making his own prime minister look contradictory and indecisive to the nation and the world. The prime minister talks about constructing toilets and improving sanitation, opening bank accounts for every poor, excluded family,...

-Livemint If Narendra Modi does not believe in a social safety net like MGNREGA, he should repeal the Act. Or else, reform it On 13 October, 28 leading development economists wrote a letter urging the Modi government to avoid diluting the Mahatma Gandhi National rural Employment Guarantee Act, or MGNREGA (often referred to as a scheme). Judging by the proposed changes to MGNREGA mentioned in the letter, one would be compelled to...

-The Hindustan Times Shimla: Even as the Himachal government boasts of having achieved women's empowerment in the state, everyday hardships are leading to stress and other mental and physical health problems among females in rural areas. Women have been the backbone of the state's economy but a host of vexatious issues they have to continually struggle with still make their life difficult. Poor healthcare facilities, lack of teachers, water scarcity...