'MGNREGA was about a guaranteed right to work.' 'The new law does not guarantee employment at all.' 'It removes everything that made MGNREGA a legal guarantee.'
The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the historic bill providing 100 days employment guarantee to every rural household in the country.
'A work guarantee that can be switched off at will is no guarantee at all.'
The total expenditure on the MGNREGA programme, as per the revised estimates from 2025-26, was Rs 88,000 crore, while initially, a sum of Rs 86,000 crore was allocated.
UPCC chief Ajai Rai clarifies Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's role in Uttar Pradesh Congress campaigns, emphasizing her national leadership while confirming her continued prominence in the state.
It has raised rural consumption, created new markets and shored up growth when investment falters.
This comes a day after President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, which replaces the MGNREGA and has a provision for 125 days of wage employment for rural workers.
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.
The first meeting of the newly-reconstituted Central Employment Guarantee Council last week, meant to oversee the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, saw two prominent members, Jean Dreze and Aruna Roy, object to various new ideas of the government, beginning with the one of using it to build Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kendras, meant to serve as offices for panchayats.
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.
Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot has refused to address the joint sitting of the state legislature, prompting government intervention. The reasons are unclear, but follow similar incidents in other states.
"If implemented 'honestly and sincerely', the programme would increase the rural income and 'certainly we will be able to soften very considerably the harsh edges of extreme poverty," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.
A year after the launch of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, two sets of figures that it throws up are arresting.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, flagship rural development programme of the United Progressive Alliance government, was launched in February 2006 in 200 districts. It was later expanded to another 130 districts in 2007-08 and eventually extended to cover all the 593 districts.
The government on Friday renamed its flagship rural job guarantee programme - National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) - after Mahatma Gandhi.
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).
As work on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme gathers pace in the villages of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, paddy farmers of Punjab are faced with an unprecedented shortage of farm hands to sow the crop.
The Centre has allocated Rs 73,000 crore to the rural employment guarantee programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act for the next fiscal 2021-22, substantially lower than the actual expenditure of Rs 1.11 lakh crore in the current fiscal which included an additional Rs 40,000 crore for the scheme given by the government in the wake of the pandemic's impact on the economy.
RBI Governor has dismissed the notion that the rural employment guarantee programme is behind the massive spurt in wages in rural areas.
The Centre has allocated Rs 73,000 crore for the rural jobs guarantee programme for 2022-23.
'At COP30, the emphasis will be on unlocking climate finance, reinforcing the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, and building resilience through inclusive transitions and the mainstreaming of adaptation.'
The appeal was made by rural development ministry secretary B K Sinha to industries and corporates to collaborate with the ministry in its wage employment programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and self-employment programme Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojna.
The Rural Development Ministry has been allocated Rs 1.88 lakh crore in the Union Budget for 2025-26, around 5.75 per cent more than the allocation in the previous budget.
A district-level investigation has named several individuals, including relatives of India cricketer Mohammed Shami.
The bill seeking to guarantee employment in rural areas -- a promise made in the Common Minimum Programme of the United Progressive Alliance government -- is likely to be taken up for consideration in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
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.
New Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has, however, taken up the challenge on how to synchronise the employment guarantee programme with the ground realities.
Nearing the four crore (40 million) mark in providing jobs under MGNREGA, re-launching the Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas scheme and reinforcing social audit in programmes on complaints of irregularities were the foremost tasks of the rural development ministry in 2010.
The provision for additional Rs 10,500 crore (Rs 105 billion) was made in the first batch of supplementary demands for grant, which was approved by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The amount has been provided, "to meet the additional requirement of the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme," stated the supplementary demand for grants.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday launched the 'historic' National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme aimed at providing right to legal livelihood to the rural poor.
The UPA government's flagship programme under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act that proved to be a vote churner for the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections is being expanded to cover the rural artisans like masons and carpenters. So far only manual work was available to those seeking employment under the Act.
Non-government activists Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze, who are widely regarded as architects of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP), boycotted its fourth anniversary celebrations at Vigyan Bhavan, on Tuesday, as a protest against the manner in which the programme had been implemented.
Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh lays out the roadmap for rural growth --- without mincing words.
Mobile banking will soon reach Indian villagers as state govts tie up with banks, telecom companies to provide this facility to them.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was launched by the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in the first flush of its commitment to the 'Aam Aadmi' agenda.
A sum of Rs 11.73 crore (Rs 117.3 million) was found to be misappropriated in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme in Andhra Pradesh, the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) has said.
The successful implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in parts of West Bengal has meant that fewer hands are available today to craft mud and straw into the idols that are central to goddess Durga's homecoming every autumn.
However, 63 per cent Indians were "satisfied" with their standard of living
This meant targets set for primary school admissions, assured income for every family and roads, water, housing and electricity. And yearly spending of over Rs 1,20,000 crore (Rs 1,200 billion), up from Rs 36,000 crore (Rs 360 billion) in the last year of the National Democratic Alliance government.
The government is committed to provide Rs 100 a day as wages under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, said finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
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