Recognising the work of writer and social activist Mahasweta Devi, the Human Resource Development Ministry has appointed her as National Research Professor for a second term of five years from February 2011. Mahasweta Devi will be entitled to an honorarium of Rs.75,000 a month in accordance with the existing terms and conditions under the National Research Professorship Scheme. Mahashweta Devi was appointed as a National Research Professor in February 2006. Thereafter, Mahashweta Devi...

Corruption in implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in UP may be another point of tussle between the state and Central governments, already at loggerheads over various issues. After getting no exact response from the state government over repeated queries regarding the action taken against officials, responsible for financial irregularities committed in the implementation of the scheme, the Centre has warned of seeking help of the...

Even as the Supreme Court has warned of a CBI inquiry into diversion of MGNREGS funds, the Centre has told the States that it will have the complaints investigated by the agency and funds will be withheld if its directives for corrective measures are ignored. The Rural Development Ministry, in its circular to the State governments, underlined its resolve to order a probe into complaints received from independent sources. It will...

To keep control over its flagship scheme ~ the much-hyped Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) ~ and to defeat its non-Congress regimes in various states, the Centre has given itself powers to check releasing funds due to ineffective implementation.   In a six-point instruction to states, the ministry of Rural Development has said that audit teams and media reports have revealed “anomalies” in the implementation of the MGNREGA. “If the...

The Union ministry of Rural Development is thinking of referring the two recent MGNREGS-related murders in Jharkhand to the CBI after arriving at the conclusion that the job scheme has been taken over by a contractors’ mafia in the state. According to a highly placed source in the ministry, the Centre was now convinced that the Jharkhand government was not taking adequate measures to undo the wrongs in the scheme. “Since...