Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah lost his cool and shouted at Youth Congress workers who raised slogans in favor of Deputy CM D K Shivakumar during a protest rally. The incident highlights the ongoing power dynamics within the Karnataka Congress.
The Union cabinet has approved a bill to rename the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and increase the number of work days under the scheme.
Civil society groups, led by the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, are planning a nationwide protest -- similar to the farmers' stir a few years ago -- starting December 19 demanding scrapping of the new Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajeevika Mission.
After a gap of more than three years, the central government has agreed to resume the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) works in West Bengal with immediate effect, but subject to mandatory adherence to stringent conditions. These include a prohibition on any work valued at more than 20 lakh, compulsory 100 per cent electronic know-your-customer (eKYC) verification of all workers, and mandatory pre-estimation field visits for all works before they are undertaken.
'A work guarantee that can be switched off at will is no guarantee at all.'
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra criticizes the government's proposed bill to replace MGNREGA, arguing it weakens the guaranteed 100 days of employment for the poor and centralizes control over the scheme.
Over 25 crore workers across India are set to strike against new labour codes and privatisation, potentially disrupting banking, postal, and other essential services.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her 8th straight Budget and all eyes will be on the much-expected tax relief for the middle class. Sitharaman had in her first Budget in 2019 replaced the leather briefcase -- which had been in use for decades for carrying Budget documents -- with a traditional 'bahi-khata' wrapped in red cloth.
Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has decided to enhance the daily wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Nrega) to Rs 121 from the existing Rs 100.
Fewer people participated in MGNREGA during the first six months of this financial year (April-September) compared to the same period last year, a recent analysis of the scheme's performance by LibTech showed.
At its peak five years ago, it was a lifeline for 5.5 crore, or one in every three rural homes
'How many people have been skilled up and thus able to escape from needing to be in NREGA? The true success of NREGA would lie in its irrelevance -- that is, people no longer need it as a crutch.' 'NREGA should enable them to climb out of poverty and stand on their feet.' 'But this is expressly forbidden by NREGA rules. Skill development, which is what India needs more than anything else, appears to be outside the purview of NREGA,' points out Rajeev Srinivasan.
The Centre, last year, had also decided to freeze the minimum wage paid under NREGA at Rs 100. Subsequently, the wages paid in many states under NREGA are lower than the minimum wages in the state.
The government on Friday renamed its flagship rural job guarantee programme - National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) - after Mahatma Gandhi.
The government may raise the number of job days under the NREGA scheme to compensate rural households for loss of income due to a poor monsoon in large part of the country.
Extending the job guarantee programme much beyond digging ponds and building roads, work allotted under NREGA may cover garmenting giving employment to lakhs of people, Textile Secretary Rita Menon has said.
Orissa, where the programme was already under a cloud after an NGO alleged false data were being entered on the state's NREGA website, is now uncovering more scams. A team of researchers led by economist Jean Dreze and Ritika Khera, which is doing a survey focussed mainly on the corruption in the programme in Orissa, recently dug out a doctored muster roll in Badhigam gram panchayat of Boudh district.
A labour ministry note sent to the rural development ministry (MoRD) says the minimum wage notified in each state - often higher than the NREGA set one - has to be paid. But MoRD has written to the PMO that the NREGA enactment has clauses that exempt it from all other laws, including the Minimum Wages Act. Hence, MoRD is not legally obliged to pay at any other rate.
The ministry asked the state governments to ensure that the job cards had the unique identity number, photographs of the registered members, postal account number or bank account number, elector's photo identity card number, signature or thumb impression of the applicant, seal and signature of the registering authority and signature of the officer.
The Centre has expressed displeasure over improper implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in some states, pointing to inadequacies like failure to put in place monitoring, auditing and accountability mechanisms.
When the Majdoor Kisan Sangharsh Samiti -- formed by NREGA workers under the guidance of NAC member Aruna Roy -- approached the registration office, they were told that NREGA workers don't qualify as 'workmen' as defined in the Industrial Disputes Act and the Trade Union Act of 1962, because they are not engaged in a trade or industry.
There are reports that payments of a fortnight's wages were made with one or two month delay in many panchayats.
Today even those who support Prime Minister Modi feel there is a certain sense of listlessness in this government. What is it intending to achieve? This is not easy to say, notes Aakar Patel.
In its report for the year ended March 31, 2008, the CAG has expressed serious concern over deficiencies like 'non-provision of the envisaged job guarantee to rural poor, fake payment of wages and delay in payment of wages to labourers'.
"The government is planning such a scheme (for urban poor)," minister of state for planning V Narayanasamy told reporters after assuming charge of his ministry in New Delhi on Wednesday. Under the NREGA scheme, which was launched in February 2006, the government provides 100 days of assured employment in a year to at least one person in a rural household.
Ministry of rural development has asked chief secretaries of the states to inform about the remedial measures taken by them to ensure timely payment of wages to NREGA workers, an official said.
Bhamori, a mother of eight is happy that she has a water tank constructed for free and also earned money for its construction in a village in Rajasthan where the largest beneficiary of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme are women.
The purpose of the rural job scheme is being defeated as, in this drought year, focus on providing work and timely wages is lost in other things, says economist and activist Jean Dreze.
All eyes will be on whether Sitharaman provides the much-expected tax relief for the middle class, leaving more money in their hands, as there is tax buoyancy
'We cannot leave our entire unorganised sector to the vagaries of market forces.'
The government is considering a proposal to expand the types of works under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to provide wider option to beneficiaries.
The scheme would check fake payments made under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and ensure that the officials don't fudge the workers' wages, state rural development department sources said. Launched from Dharhar village of Paliganj area in Naxalite-hit Jehanabad district recently, the 'E-Shakti' scheme promises to cover each worker with smart cards carrying details about duration of work, the wage earned, photograph and registration number of the beneficiary.
The key to successful implementation of many government schemes lies in a few ifs.
The government on Friday admitted certain flaws in its flagship rural employment programme like irregularities in payment of wages and said steps were being taken to set them right.
Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Association of India had recently stated that real estate projects were experiencing time and cost overruns due to shortage of labour because of schemes like Nrega.
Pawar said the Union Cabinet has already decided last week to reschedule crop loans of farmers in the affected drought areas with reduced interest rate of 7 per cent.
The new rural development minister wants to use technology to force states to make payments. Critics suggest that he should fix existing problems first.
"It may be a wild thought now. But the first Green Revolution came about as a result of very high water guzzling cropping systems from the irrigated regions of the country. But the NREGA holds the trigger for a second Green Revolution from the rain-fed areas, but using water conserving technologies and working with the smaller and poorer farmers while the first revolution came from the big farmers," Dr. Sharma said.
On October 1, Union Cabinet cleared the proposal of the rural development ministry for naming National Rural Employment Guarantee Act after Mahatma Gandhi.
Purulia district in West Bengal, where Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said, people are worse off than those in Orissa's poorest Kalahandi area, has since turned the corner.
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