The Rural Development Ministry seems to be a familiar ground for Jairam Ramesh . No sooner was he given the new portfolio, he announced that the two bills related to land acquisition would be clubbed. The minister spells out his priorities in an exclusive interview with ET. Excerpts: What will be the key motif for the omnibus land acquisition law you are proposing? The bill will be facilitative not restrictive....
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NHRC favours Social Audit of govt''s flagship schemes
-PTI Critical over the leakage of funds meant for the rural poor, the National Human Rights Commission has suggested that the government should conduct a Social Audit of flagship programmes like MGNREGA and ICDS to have an assessment on what is the impact on ground. A top NHRC official said the government''s various studies and reports had shown that there was no match between the programmes and performance as the authorities...
More »Who will watch the watchmen? by Minhaz Merchant
The audited balance sheets of the six largest political parties in India are hard to get and harder to decipher: they hide more than they reveal but are nonetheless worth close examination. Between them, the Congress, BJP, BSP, SP, NCP and CPM reported total income of Rs 1,046.76 crore for the year ending March 31, 2009. That was the year in which most of the funds for the 2009 Lok...
More »Ramesh gears up to make land bill, poverty count highly political by Prabha Jagannathan
-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Signalling clearly that the rural develpment ministry, virtually somnolent under minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, was set to go ballistic politically, minister Jairam Ramesh who took charge here on Wednesday spelt out deadlines for the three most important issues including the land acquisition bill, poverty count and stringent monitoring of UPA II's flagship programme the MGNREGA. Jairam, who earned a lot of attention in his earlier charge,...
More »Centre mandates state Social Audit for NREGS by Devika Banerji
The government will set up statelevel independent bodies to carry out financial and Social Audits of its flagship rural employment guarantee programme, which critics say is riddled with corruption. The rural development ministry will also make it mandatory for state governments to submit a report on the Social Audit, which unlike other government audits, allows beneficiaries of the scheme to register complaints. The move to increase transparency in the Mahatma...
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