-The Indian Express Mumbai: Despite MGNREGA’s rich possibilities, Kumar notes that the Maharashtra government has slashed allocations under it to Rs 800 crore in 2014-15. Even as it stares at unprecedented crop loss from back-to-back droughts followed by untimely rains/hailstorms, Maharashtra has seemingly given the short shrift to MGNREGA, which could have gone some way in mitigating the current crisis. And significantly, its potential has been least leveraged in Vidarbha, the region...

-The Indian Express As the toll of human misery and suicide mounts, official estimates of farm losses due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms in March remain controversial, with hasty downward revision. Since these estimates are largely notional, without validation from field visits, such revision smacks of deliberate fiddling. On March 24, the agriculture ministry reported that crops on 18 million hectares — about 30 per cent of the rabi crops —...

-PTI NEW DELHI: The number of workdays being provided under the rural job flagship scheme MGNREGA has registered a decline, Lok Sabha was informed today. Minister of State for Rural Development Sudarshan Bhagat, in a written reply to Lok Sabha, said "there has been a decline in the number of persondays created in 2014-15." "MGNREGA is a demand driven programme and the demand for work itself is influenced by various factors such as...

Amidst brouhaha over the importance of MGNREGA, the recently released 68th Round National Sample Survey (NSS) report clears the air whether the MGNREGA had been beneficial to employment of persons from Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Based on a survey of nearly 59,700 households in rural areas of India, the NSS 68th Round data shows that the proportion of persons who got job in...

-The Times of India INDORE: After LPG subsidy, Union government has made Aadhaar card mandatory for job applicants under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The move, however, is being criticized by activists. "MGNREGA Management Information System (MIS) is refusing to accept work demand or generate musters for workers unless Aadhaar number is mentioned," said Madhuri from Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan. Terming it latest effort of government to derail MGNREGA, Madhuri...