-The Hindu   Concerned at the Supreme Court's stringent stand on large-scale misappropriation of MGNREGS funds, the Centre on Wednesday warned that officials and districts would be held responsible if the money did not reach beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. At an emergency meeting here of all project directors of the District Rural Development Agency and the chief executive officers of zilla parishads, Rural Development Minister Vilasrao...

-PTI   A number of issues pertaining to rural development programmes such as Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, National Rural Livelihoods Mission and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act are likely to be discussed in a two-day conference beginning here tomorrow. Besides monitoring and evaluation of the development programmes, issues relating to District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) administration scheme will be discussed in the conference to be inaugurated and chaired by Minister of Rural...

Eco-activism has Punjab’s polluters in a tizzy Operation Clean-Up     * Industrial and organic pollution from the Sutlej and the Beas is affecting southern districts of Punjab and parts of Rajasthan     * A popular movement straddling both states and helmed by eco-activist Baba Balbir Singh     * Seechewal has the election-bound state government worried     * Seechewal organised a massive exercise to prevent the Kala Sanghian, a highly polluted Sutlej tributary, from draining...

More than five years have passed since the world’s largest employment programme was launched in India. The scale of employment generated was not the only reason that this is a path breaking legislation. The MGNREGA is the first national law to establish rights in the development sector. It is demand based, and not constrained by arbitrary and restrictive selections like the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list. Any person living in a...

In the light of fact finding report submitted recently by the Union rural development secretary B K Sinha on the rampant corruption and irregularities in the implementation of the projects under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee, the Centre has warned the Jharkhand government that it would be compelled to discontinue to release funds for rural job guarantee projects under MGNREGS.. In consequence of Centre’s warning, the state government has decided...