Despite facing financial constraints, Kerala has been able to invest in welfare schemes and targeted programmes.
Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and several other party leaders were detained on Tuesday night as they held a dharna at the Union Rural Development Ministry office in New Delhi demanding a meeting with the minister and released around three hours later.
The chief minister pointed out that out of that figure, Rs 1,815 crore (Rs 18.15 billion) was a liability and not received from the Government of India.
It was under his stewardship of the Union Rural Development Ministry that NREGA, the flagship rural livelihood scheme, was implemented.
The statistics (compiled till May), presented and analysed by the Performance Review Committee of the ministry last week, show that states run by UPA governments have not made much advance in implementing its signature rural development schemes.
The Union rural development ministry has recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into two separate cases of murder related to corruption and wage demands in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Jharkhand.
The quantum of irregularities can be gauged from the fact that during 11 months of last fiscal, Union Rural Development Ministry received 351 complaints of alleged embezzlement of funds in the NREGA.
The much-awaited policy for mandatory rehabilitation of land owners displaced by industrial projects and SEZs might get delayed with the matter being referred to a Group of Ministers.
The recent blacklisting of 600 NGOs by the Union rural development ministry was meant to stem the rot in the functioning of its autonomous body called Council for Advancement of People's Action And Rural Technology or Capart.
The PM is keen to fill 40 per cent of joint secretary level openings with outsiders.
The NDA government has asked states to enrol all MNREGA workers under the three newly-launched social security schemes.
There are many such young men in Maharashtra, mainly in the industrially backward Marathwada region, who had once fallen victim to ISIS's propaganda but are now leading a normal life with the help of the employment training programme.
Instructions from the Union rural development ministry to the state officials on the WhatsApp group show that the chat was also used as an off-record avenue for the Union government to pass instructions, which it could not have done through formal channels, keeping the law in mind.
Centre's off-the-record instructions through WhatsApp and a squeeze on funds brought the rural work programme to collapse after a roaring first half of the year.
Agri experts are meeting FinMin ministry officials on Monday to give their inputs on the Budget.
PM extended some old schemes and finally said yes to one that was legally mandated for past 2 years.
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