A campaign to spread awareness on the MNREGS through two television commercials failed to penetrate the rural masses because of faulty planning, an impact assessment study by the Union Ministry of Rural Development has found. The MNREGS awareness campaign was aired on cable and satellite channels in UP, Rajasthan, Bihar and the National Capital Region from January 23 to March 23, 2010. Seven months after the campaign, the ministry decided to conduct...

About four years after its first survey on the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Orissa's hinterlands that showed large-scale defalcation of money, the Delhi-based NGO Centre for Environment and Food Security today in its second performance audit revealed that 67 per cent of very poor Dalit and tribal households in Orissa and UP did not get even a single day of the NREGS employment during previous...

Amid technical and infrastructural constraints, Maharashtra has rolled out 1.2 million Aadhaars, but the beneficiaries have been able to make little use of these numbers Ashok Bhil, a 25-year-old graduate from Navalpur, 7 Km from Tembhli, is disappointed with the way the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is rolling out Aadhaar in Maharashtra. Last September, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government chose Tembhli, a small village in the predominantly tribal Nandurbar...

Despite Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's assurance that the government would not go ahead with the Jaitapur nuclear power plant unless it was fully secure, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has already sought tenders for building a concrete testing laboratory and a meteorological laboratory at Madhban, the proposed site of the plant. Long-term dangers cited As per the advertisement issued in a Marathi daily on Tuesday, the NPCIL called...

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has given his nod to appoint Lokpal in 12 districts for grievance redressal under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act (MGNREGA). The chief minister has given the approval to appoint Lokpal in Banswara, Bundi, Dausa, Sriganganagar, Jalore, Jhalawar, Jhunjhunu, Jodhpur, Kota, Nagaur, Pratapgarh and Tonk districts, a spokesperson said. Gehlot also approved 20 per cent increase in advertisement rates set by the Department of...