In a letter to jailed RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, the veteran leader wrote he was quitting the party. "Since the death of Jannayak Karpoori Thakur, I stood behind you for 32 years, but not now," he wrote in his brief one-line resignation letter to Prasad, who is serving sentences in four fodder scam cases in Ranchi.
At a time when at a time Lalu Prasad Yadav is facing huge flak from his political opponents for stoking a controversy saying Hindus too eat beef, fellow Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh on Saturday created another furore when he claimed, citing the Vedas, that 'rishis' and 'maharishis' used to consume beef.
Singh was widely regarded as an expert in the rural and agricultural landscape of the country and is credited with the conceptualisation and implementation of the NREGA (National Rural Guarantee Employment) Act.
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.
It was under his stewardship of the Union Rural Development Ministry that NREGA, the flagship rural livelihood scheme, was implemented.
It is now a different time in Bihar. It is a different place -- one in which Raghuvansh Prasad Singh's options are very limited, notes Aditi Phadnis.
In his letter to Kumar, the veteran leader has made a series of suggestions including an amendment in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act, bringing Lord Buddha's begging bowl from Kabul and hoisting tricolor at Vaishali, the land of world's first Republic.
It was a day of mayhem for the main opposition party as S M Qamar Alam, a national general secretary of the RJD, walked to the chamber of Vidhan Parishad Acting chairman Awadhesh Narain Singh along with four others to tender their resignation. The other MLCs who resigned are Sanjay Prasad, Radha Charan Seth, Ranvijay Kumar Singh and Dlip Rai.
'It is the RJD, otherwise known for misgovernance, which has offered a candidate of clean and performing credentials, rather than the NDA,' points out Mohammad Sajjad.
International Shardul Thakur will lead Mumbai in the 2025-26 edition of Ranji Trophy, the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) announced while unveiling the list of probables for the prestigious tournament.
Left's role in formation of next government seen crucial.
The defeated Rashtriya Janata Dal's top upper caste leader and its face of development, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, is disappointed with his boss' poll strategy.
The quantum of punishment will be announced on January 3, 2018.
Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh was forced by an agitated Opposition and Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to withdraw his un-parliamentary remarks against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said the government has written letters to heads of IITs and IIMs and vice chancellors of universities seeking their cooperation and involvement in the scheme. He said the government has asked officials of these reputed institutes to visit villages for conducting technical and impact assessment studies besides lending their help in implementing the programme.
The probe panel, constituted by Bihar's National Democratic Alliance government, on Tuesday confirmed that Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh's kin had engaged two child labourers for tilling an agricultural land at Shahpur village in Vaishali district on December 9. The finding dealt a severe blow to Singh's assertion that some TV channels had stage-managed the story.
"The prime minister asked the ministers to stay alert on the global financial situation," Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
A solution is expected on the issue of suspension of seven Rajya Sabha members by Thursday evening.
Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Minister for Rural Development Programme, has announced that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has been launched in all the districts of country. In the first year 2006-2007 the scheme was implemented in 200 districts, in the next year it was extended to 130 districts & in 2008-2009 it covered the remaining 274 districts. Singh said that all those working under the scheme would be paid by cheque which will have to be deposited in the banks.
The proposal aimed to provide pension for life to widows and persons with severe and multiple disabilities belonging to families below the poverty line, irrespective of age. Expenditure Secretary Sushma Nath argued that if there was no age cap, it would become "open ended" and "send the wrong message" to society. The Cabinet conceded Nath had a point and adopted the revised plan, which includes an age limit.
Rahul Gandhi, along with a dozen Congress leaders, had met the prime minister on Wednesday to demand that the scheme, which guarantees 100 days employment to each rural household, be extended to the entire country.
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.
The rural development ministry has come in direct conflict with the communications ministry, which has refused to accept its request for disbursing wages under the rural job scheme through post offices without charging any fee.
The UP chief minister has said that all MPs misuse their area development funds.
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.
Estimates show more than half of the country's rural population still defecates in the open, along roadsides, railway tracks and fields.
According to sources, the GoM has accepted the rural development ministry's demand to stick to the 70:30 formula for land acquisition for industry, after rejecting suggestions of a parliamentary panel, Left parties and some state governments. This means that a state can acquire only up to 30 per cent of the total land required for a project with the remaining being acquired by the private party concerned.
Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh on Monday declared that the United Progressive Alliance combination would return to power despite the Bharatiya Janata Party's claim that it was going to come to power. He blamed the media for creating differences between the Left parties and the UPA. He was addressing mediapersons on the eve of three day ministerial conference on rural development to be held in New Delhi beginning from Tuesday.
"We will not make payment if the beneficiary does not have a bank account. We have opened 1.45 crore accounts so far. We will cover 3.37 crore beneficiaries very soon," Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh told PTI on Monday. The minister, who was speaking after inaugurating the National Consultation on NREGA, said the move would help check any irregularity in implementation of the programme.
National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill moved in Lok Sabha
The recent draft report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which pointed to misuse and non-utilisation of funds for the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme doesn't mean the programme is a write-off. The audit will act as a deterrent and spur state governments to work more efficiently, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has said.
The Land Acquisition Act will be amended after the GoM submits its report.
The Centre has convened a meeting of Secretaries of Rural Development of 13 states where progress in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana has been slow, the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.
CBI judge Shiv Pal Singh directed senior RJD leaders Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Shivanand Tiwari and Lalu Yadav's son Tejashwi Yadav and Congress leader Manish Tewari to personally appear before the court on January 23.
"I say that he (Sushant) was not a Rajput. Please don't mind but a Rajput who belongs to Maharana Pratap's clan cannot hang himself by a rope," Yadav said on Wednesday while inaugurating a newly-built road in Saharsa, his assembly constituency.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi and elder daughter Misa Bharti will contest the Lok Sabha polls, the party's first list of candidates has revealed.
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