-The Economic Times   Concern over protecting the 'holy cow' status to the job guarantee programme, MGNREGA, appears to be overshadowing genuine worries in the government over increasing shortage of unskilled farm labour. Shooting down a suggestion from Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar that the programme may be suspended during the peak farming season, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has said that there should not be any dilution in the programme. In an...

Members of Parliament, cutting across party lines, have demanded an increase in the wages and workdays of the beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, one of the flagship programmes of the UPA government, so as to insulate them from the galloping inflation. The demands were made by the members, including those of the ruling Congress-led ruling coalition, at a meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee on the...

-The Economic Times   The government has amended its landmark Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to ensure that beneficiaries receive wage entitlements under the Act within 15 days through institutionalised channels, like banks and post offices. The amendment to Schedule II of the MGNREGA now makes it mandatory under the law for state governments to ensure that every beneficiary has a bank or post office account and the disbursements...

People in Anini are up in arms, seeking clarification from the Block Development Officer-cum-District Project Coordinator regarding the implementation of MGNREGA in Dibang Valley district. It has been alleged that recently some local people, on behalf of the BDO Anini, are going around the district taking signatures on a paper known as the ‘muster roll’ in official parlance. Reportedly, persons employed to get the signatures are not even official employees...

-PTI   Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today suggested the Rajasthan government to implement Banking Correspondent (BC) Model in the state for payment to MGNREGA workers in time. Ramesh, while attending a meeting with Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Minister Bharat Singh and social activist Aruna Roy, he said delay or late payment of wages discourages MGNREGA labourers and attributed this to absence of banks outside district headquarters. He said the BC...