-The Times of India UPA's flagship rural guarantee scheme is performing fitfully in terms of work days, wages and coverage, amply confirming rural development minister Jairam Ramesh's fears that the programme has become a scheme for digging ditches. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee, UPA's outreach to the poor, is not meeting critical parameters and is crying out for reform with questions about the utility a Rs 36,000-crore a year budget...

Highway users should brace for paying toll even after the private road developer or the government recovers the capital investment with the interest. A new plan finalized by the government has proposed that road users would pay user charge for "efficient" operation and maintenance of the highway stretches in perpetuity. Under the new model, the highways ministry wants to levy a fee for projects taken up under short-term operation-maintenance-transfer (OMT) contracts...

-The Hindu He stopped truck to expose denial of full quota of grain A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into the death of an activist fighting corruption in the PDS who, his daughter alleged, was shot dead by the police on Saturday in a village in Narsinghpur district in Madhya Pradesh. When Ambika Prasad Dubey (55), who had been working to bring out corruption and Leakages in the Public Distribution System, and some...

-Live Mint It turns out that some state officials were using NRHM to enrich themselves The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched seven years ago with the goal of improving healthcare delivery to people in villages, especially the poor, through a generous infusion of federal funds. Local authorities were given a relatively free hand in deciding how to spend the money, with the Centre promising funds with no strings attached for...

The crux of the problem is not Leakages, but unsold stocks. The debate on the public distribution system is being increasingly overwhelmed by the issue of corruption. The pressures on the system are seen primarily, if not entirely, as one of Leakages. This preoccupation with Leakages has reached a point where the government appears set to throw up its hands and just hand over cash to families, irrespective of whether they...