The government has a plan to reach welfare to the poor without wasting money. It wants to put hard cash in their hands instead of spending on welfare programmes. To begin with, it wants to end the public distribution system of food grain and give money directly to the people. Its logic: the new system of cash transfer will plug leakages and save an enormous amount of money. But is it...

Five years after it came into being, hundreds of NGOs and activists would come together to recount the success and failure of MGNREGA at Udyog Maidan near Statue Circle on Wednesday. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act had come into effect on February 2, 2006. According to Nikhil Dey of the Suchna Evum Rozgar Ka Adhikar Abhiyan, "These five years have seen not just many people getting employment...

As government, corporates seek to engage with NGOs, they gain new significance Brave NGO World?     * The Planning Commission is courting NGOs for policy inputs, views on how to make plans work     * NGOs and local activism forced govt to stall Vedanta, Posco plans     * NGO opposition to snacks being served in schools changed plans to scrap hot meals     * NGO have made the government rethink the Polavaram dam project    ...

The Centre released Rs 1.08 lakh crore to states under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme since February 2006 but did not carry out account auditing at any level, the government told the Supreme Court on Friday. This admission by the Union of India meant violation of the intent of Section 24 of the Act, which says, "The central government may, in consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General...

Even though the Central Government agreed to link the wages paid under MG-NREGA to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPIAL), it shied away from paying statutory minimum wages in various states of India. Their logic for this: Lack of clarity on who will bear the extra financial burden—the Centre or the states? A letter from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to UPA and NAC Chairperson Sonia Gandhi dated 31...