Member of Parliament can now allocate funds from their local area development scheme kitty for rural employment guarantee programmes. The move that comes just ahead of Budget is aimed at providing the much-needed fiscal cushion to operate the UPA's most ambitious social security programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA).
Opposition members strongly opposed the proposed legislation at the introduction stage and pressed for sending the bill to a parliamentary panel for greater scrutiny. The MPs, including Priyanka Gandhi of the Congress, strongly objected to the "removal" of Mahatma Gandhi's name.
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 district-level investigation has named several individuals, including relatives of India cricketer Mohammed Shami.
Watched by AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi who is in the forefront to ensure that United Progressive Alliance's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is a success, Rural Development Minister C P Joshi said, "Everywhere, including in Parliament, there are doubts in everybody's mind that the way in which NREGA should function, is not happening."
We need real laws to protect whistle-blowers, and even more than that real action should be taken against perpetrators, says Sandip Sukhtankar.
Members protest, rural ministry assures it will not be so hereafter.
Acute shortage of labour and migration towards social schemes like Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), a large number of construction projects are lagging behind their completion schedules.
There are a number of problems that plague the implementation of MGNREGA, including corruption, administrative paralysis and other hardy perennials. Massive amounts of funds on this scheme remained unspent in 2010-11 and 2011-12.
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.
Last year, Nagapattinam district in Tamil Nadu won a national award for 100 per cent utilization of the NREGA funds.Former Nagapattinam District Collector M Jayaraman, recently received the award from Prime Minister Singh.M Jayaraman is now the district collector of Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu. In his interview with rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar, Jayaraman discusses the pros and cons of the NREGA programme.
In the fourth such instance, Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Tuesday walked out of the state assembly without reading his customary address after alleging that the national anthem was insulted, evoking a sharp response from Chief Minister M K Stalin, who dubbed his action as an 'insult' to the House and the people of the state.
RBI Governor has dismissed the notion that the rural employment guarantee programme is behind the massive spurt in wages in rural areas.
Non-flagship programmes to get a mere 5% hike in allocation
This is her second intervention, seeking that work done under NREGA be treated as scheduled employment under the Minimum Wages Act.
Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has requested Sonia Gandhi to return Jawaharlal Nehru's documents to the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library, emphasizing their national significance. He also addressed the Aravalli Hills controversy and the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission.
In an advisory to the states, ministry of rural development has also asked them to take effective measures to ensure that rural households receive their 'due entitlement' under the Act in the districts facing drought.
A bench comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadia and justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar directed the CBI to conduct the probe on the basis of the survey reports provided by the petitioner, CAG report and the National Institute of Rural Development.
The key to successful implementation of many government schemes lies in a few ifs.
To make the implementation of its flagship programme for rural job guarantee more transparent, the Union government plans to constitute a group of eminent persons for its independent evaluation and monitoring.
"We have decided to identify 100 eminent citizens to report independently further on the progress of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The process is underway," Union minister for rural development C P Joshi told PTI.
Loss of confirmed orders, increase in wages and labour shortage were blamed on the scheme in a survey of 100 companies from diverse sectors.
Rejecting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's charge that his demand for Central Bureau of Investigation probe into Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act implementation was "politically motivated", Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday said he would not hesitate to recommend similar investigation even in Congress-ruled states.
Just over 5 crore (50 million) households received employment in works like water conservation and water harvesting, drought proofing, irrigation canals and renovation of traditional water canals, the MNREGA annual report, tabled by the Rural Development ministry in Parliament, said.
'MGNREGA Sameeksha' is an anthology of all major research studies on performance of the programme that were published in academic journals or the stand-alone reports, but excluding the newspaper and magazine articles and opinion pieces, says Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh in his forward to the volume.
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.
The National Level Monitors have pointed out grave irregularities in the NREGA scheme in Uttar Pradesh.
Bihar government has decided to use high-tech GPS enabled Android phones to monitor progress of the rural jobs scheme and keep a watch on the officials involved in the implementation of the scheme.
Patil in her address to both Houses of Parliament said higher public spending on programmes of rural development has successfully raised incomes in those areas.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar met Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, leading to speculation about a change in chief minister. Shivakumar denies discussing political matters, focusing on the MGNREGA replacement.
Three laws passed in Parliament could boost central revenues, reshape GST cess flows, shift MGNREGA costs to states and create new budget headroom ahead of the 2026-2027 Union Budget, points out A K Bhattacharya.
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.
Even as the flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme continues to face problems at the implementation level, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, ignoring suggestions by Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia and other economists, has refused to bring any major change in the scheme.
Bihar Rural Development Minister Nitish Mishra on Monday ordered an inquiry into the allegations that nearly 73 per cent of the funds allotted for implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in 38 districts of Bihar, between 2006 and 2012, have been embezzled by authorities.
Official death toll due to the cyclonic storm has been pegged at 21, nearly 12 million people affected.
The SR Abhiyan meeting held in Jaipur, Rajasthan to mark the completion of seven years of MGNREGA decided that both pensions and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act would be made electoral issues and political parties would be asked to take a stand before canvassing during the upcoming state and national elections.
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.
