-The Hindu Any political benefit the Congress hopes to reap in 2014 will come at the cost of reducing the effectiveness of social welfare schemes In getting its ministers to endorse the shift to cash transfers from the AICC office in New Delhi, the Congress has highlighted the political nature of the move. The party clearly expects cash transfers to play the same role for it in 2014 that the National Rural...
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NREGA workers to make over 3 lakh anganwadis
-The Business Standard Union Ministry of Rural Development has decided to include the construction of anganwadi centres in the schedule of permissible works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005. Under the new work, NREGA workers would build about 3.5 lakh anganwadis using funds for the purpose from the ministry of women and child development (WCD). The women and child development ministry has funds of close to Rs 7,000 crore...
More »Notifying Farming as an Essential Service: An Authoritarian Manoeuvre-SAHRDC
-Economic and Political Weekly The Government of India is considering a proposal to notify farming as an essential service. This is ostensibly to bring drought relief to farmers suffering from a weak monsoon - a laudable goal indeed. However, if farming is deemed an "essential service", farmers and farm workers could lose many of their political and civic rights because the government can then invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act to...
More »Much more than a survival scheme -Aruna Roy & Nikhil Dey
-The Hindu An anthology of independent evaluations of MGNREGA shows that it has provided income security, improved health, narrowed the gender gap and created useful assets In the midst of the debates that prevail in this country over the feasibility of the world’s largest public works programme, the MGNREGA Sameeksha — an anthology of independent research studies and analysis on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, from 2006-2012 — is...
More »34% increase in deposits at rural banks-Jaideep Deogharia
-The Times of India RANCHI: If deposits in banks are indicative of prosperity of a region, Jharkhand villages have been blazing quite a trail over the past couple of years. The volume of money deposited with rural bank branches witnessed a whopping 34% increase over the last fiscal as against increase of mere 19% in the urban bank branches. With emphasis on financial inclusion, linking MGNREGA wages with bank accounts and...
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