Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has urged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to route Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) Wage Payments through bank accounts, doing away with the practice of cash payment to workers. In a letter to Ms. Jayalalithaa, he said Tamil Nadu could become a trend-setter in seamless transfer of funds through bank and postal accounts of workers and thereby deepen financial inclusion in the...

-PTI In a bid to check corruption in payment of MGNREGA wages, the government plans to introduce videography during the process, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said here today. "Videography will be used in the presence of officials while giving wages to the MGNREGA beneficiaries from now to ensure proper and timely payment," Ramesh said. Recalling how corruption in the social audit of MGNREGA had claimed Niyamat Ansari, who exposed corruption by...

JANGU, 40, a Dalit labourer in Paraspur village in Gonda district, 120 km northeast of Lucknow, displays his job card in complete disbelief. “My job card was made three years ago and shows three payments. But I was never given any work, so how was the payment made?” he asks, puzzled. The first entry shows a payment of Rs 1,400 but he received a paltry Rs 100. He never went...

Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh admitted lapses of the past but spoke of a new beginning today in Saranda while unveiling an action plan for the forest region that was under the shadow of Maoist terror for over a decade. Armed with goodies like bicycles and transistor radios for residents of Chotanagra panchayat, about 120km from district headquarters of Chaibasa, Ramesh made it clear that the implementation of the development...

In a move most ministries would shy away from, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has written to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, requesting him for a performance and financial audit of the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (NREGA), the most heavily funded flagship scheme of the UPA government. The minister has written to CAG Vinod Rai, who was recently criticised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for calling frequent...