The labourers, who were using heavy equipment, had no time to escape when a 50-feet-high mound of soil caved in. Villagers rushed to the spot to pull out the trapped labourers from under the debris. Revenue and police personnel also joined in the rescue operations. Eight bodies were retrieved after a three-hour operation. Five injured persons were shifted to the government hospital at Korutla. Relatives of the deceased alleged that adequate safety measures had not been taken
Both NDA and INDIA are racing to woo marginalised groups with Assembly polls fast approaching.
The thrust on agriculture, removal of Fringe Benefit Tax etc should help improve the earnings of the FMCG sector
Buoyancy in the real estate sector along with improved construction activities created jobs and facilitated the return of migrant workers to cities, the Economic Survey for 2022-23 tabled in Parliament on Tuesday said. This assumes significance in view of loss of jobs due to lockdown restrictions imposed in various parts of the country from time to time amid different waves of pandemic since March 2020. The survey points towards sustained recovery in the economic activities during 2022-23 fiscal year.
Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh on Thursday sanctioned Rs 1,846 crore to Tamil Nadu under the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme and appreciated the efforts by the Tamil Nadu government in accelerating the programme.
RBI Governor has dismissed the notion that the rural employment guarantee programme is behind the massive spurt in wages in rural areas.
We need real laws to protect whistle-blowers, and even more than that real action should be taken against perpetrators, says Sandip Sukhtankar.
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.
In her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday underlined the need for collaboration between the Centre and states to take up the next-generation reforms covering land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship. As far as revenue share goes, the government has projected to give about 32.5 per cent of central taxes to states during FY25, against the 15th Finance Commission's recommendation of 41 per cent, according to the Union Budget estimate.
The Centre has allocated Rs 73,000 crore for the rural jobs guarantee programme for 2022-23.
President A P J Abdul Kalam on Monday suggested widening the ambit of Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (REGS), which primarily caters to manual labour, to include knowledge-based employment.
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.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to step up efforts to boost consumption and rural economy while keeping inflation under check when she presents her sixth straight Budget on February 1. Experts said one way to boost consumption is to put more money in the hands of people, and one of the possible ways of doing it is by reducing the tax burden through tinkering with tax slabs or increasing the standard deduction. Another proposal is related to increasing the funds under the rural employment guarantee scheme MGNREGA and higher payout for farmers.
The plan could mature into either an umbrella programme for urban youths similar to the Garib Kalyan Rozgaar Abhiyaan or a modified urban-focused version of MGNREGS.
Alloting more funds for MNREGA and PM-KISAN could wipe out the entire additional money that the Centre may have for FY25.
A wall in Vijaypura is an example of what a single positive example can do for a large programme like the National Rrural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
The key to successful implementation of many government schemes lies in a few ifs.
A performance audit on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guatantee Act found that Bihar was deprived of grant of Rs 9684.24 crore (Rs 96.84 billion) during 2007-12 in the shape of central share due to less creation of mandays, sharp increase in demand for fund without sufficient justification and unspent balance grant, said the report.
But the government will present a second tranche of Supplementary Demands for Grants during the Budget session of Parliament in February, when it can seek additional spending.
Non-flagship programmes to get a mere 5% hike in allocation
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.
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.
Congress' senior spokesperson Anand Sharma Sharma said Prime Minister Narendra Modi must 'walk the talk' and announce the measures required by giving money in the hands of the poor and small and medium enterprises to help reboot the economy.
NGOs have acquired a certain critical mass and are increasingly becoming powerful voices in public discourse.
80% of beneficiaries in 300 districts to be linked with direct benefits transfer
Youth unemployment (ages 15 to 29) is higher than the national average of 12.4 per cent in Telangana (14.2 per cent) and Rajasthan (13 per cent), followed by Chhattisgarh (6.7 per cent) and MP (6 per cent).
Additional infrastructure for dining rooms in each of the school has been recommended.
'If the total amount is spent, it will be highest Budget spend on MGNREGA.'
Around 40 per cent of the country is staring at drought-like conditions ahead of the monsoon as water levels have receded sharply.
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.
Every young diploma and degree holder in the country will have the right to apprenticeships in the private and government sectors, he said.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami has asserted that alliances are formed only at the time of elections and declined to categorically say if his party would align with the BJP for the 2026 Assembly polls. Palaniswami met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday and brought to his attention several issues faced by Tamil Nadu, including the need for funds release, the implementation of the Godavari-Cauvery river linking plan, and a probe into the "TASMAC scam." He said that while the party would decide on an alliance at the time of the election, he did not rule out a tie-up with the BJP.
To kick-start the work under MGNREGA after the lockdown is lifted, the government has already prepared plans and states have also submitted their work plans.
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.
'There is no immediate threat to the government, and they would prefer the growth agenda.'
The biggest headwind to the consumption story in FY23 is a sharp decline in government subsidies on food, fertiliser and fuel, and overall decline in revenue expenditure net of interest payments. This, analysts say, will adversely impact purchasing power of households at the lower end of the income pyramid, translating into lower spending on consumer goods and services.
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