Programme has also failed in its target of providing a guaranteed employment of 100 days in a year to one person per family.
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.
This is her second intervention, seeking that work done under NREGA be treated as scheduled employment under the Minimum Wages Act.
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.
Bank account holders are no longer required to visit their bank branches to update 'know your customer' (KYC) details provided they have already submitted valid documents and not changed their address, the RBI has said. Instead, if there is no change in KYC information, they can submit a self-declaration through email-id, registered mobile number, ATMs, or any other digital channels. Following up on Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das stating that banks should not insist on branch visits for KYC updation, the central bank on Thursday issued guidelines for the same.
Around 100 NREGA workers, engaged in digging a stretch of land for the past 13 days were paid a paltry Re 1 per day as wages with the district administration justifying the payment saying it was a small area collectively dug by the workers
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.
As per the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, if a person dies by accident arising out of and in the course of employment, implementing agency will have to pay Rs 25,000 as ex-gratia to the legal heirs of the victim and the same will be the case if someone becomes permanently disabled while working under the programme.
Development economist Jean Dreze said the Indian democracy is currently navigating a crisis that is not only limited to the 'recent wave of authoritarianism' but also suppression of opposition voices by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
All eyes will be on whether Sitharaman will deliver a populist budget leaving more money in hands of the common man or push the reform agenda by staying on the fiscal glide path to lower the fiscal deficit to 4.5 per cent of GDP by 2025-26.
Rahul Gandhi on took a dig at PM Modi saying his government's praise of the UPA's flagship scheme MGNREGA is a "shining example" of Modi's "political wisdom".
RBI Governor has dismissed the notion that the rural employment guarantee programme is behind the massive spurt in wages in rural areas.
'Whenever I felt like giving up, I'd think about my father.' 'I think about all the hardships he'd undergone to put me in a good school and give me the best of coaching.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her fifth Budget that may do a tightrope walk between staying fiscally prudent and meeting general public expectations of lower taxes and a wider social security net, while at the same time firing the engines of the economy.
China has sought information on India's poverty reduction programmes, including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, to beef up its own strategy.
The negative balance is largely on account of pending material cost for the work done under the programme during the year and even earlier.
The government has revised the wages for unskilled manual workers under the national rural employment guarantee scheme by indexing it to inflation, Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said.
With UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi pushing for increased wages for labourers, the government on Thursday came out with a new structure for payment of wages under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) that will be linked to inflation.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has warned the officers of stern action if irregularities were detected in implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
In its report to the rural development ministry, the NLM has also noted that 60 per cent of the districts have 'unsatisfactory or irrelevant' choice of works under the Act and its technical supervision was also absent.
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."
'Why does a State that sees a national security issue at every turn not recognise the seriousness of the data from sensitive databases being breached?'
'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.
The National Level Monitors have pointed out grave irregularities in the NREGA scheme in Uttar Pradesh.
A government-sponsored study on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has found large-scale corruption and irregularities in the implementation of the programme in several states with authorities in some areas misappropriating' central funds and threatening workers to keep their mouth shut."There was great fraud in the making (of job) cards, muster rolls were not maintained properly and work was not provided to job seekers sometimes," a team of researchers said.
It has raised rural consumption, created new markets and shored up growth when investment falters.
'They want (the ownership and management of PSU banks) to pass into the hands of a private sector entity.' 'Ownership of these banks will go from the public sector to private sector.'
He pointed out that wages under the NREGA have been increased from Rs 61 to Rs 100 which would lead to earnings of Rs 10,000 annually 'irrespective of qualification'. Mukherjee, who is the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief urged party workers to pinpoint failures in implementation of the scheme at the block and panchayat levels.
"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.
Members protest, rural ministry assures it will not be so hereafter.
'...Market-linked debentures, high-value insurance, exemptions from capital gains by investment in real estate, etc.' 'So, there are a number of measures directed at collecting a fair share from higher income individuals.'
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 districts have provided 64 days of jobs under the 100-day job scheme as against the state average of 45 days.
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.
We need real laws to protect whistle-blowers, and even more than that real action should be taken against perpetrators, says Sandip Sukhtankar.
The prime minister also said the government proposes to set up an ombudsman in each district for effective grievance redressal under NREGA.
It can possibly happen only in Bihar. The names of rich including chartered accountant, government employees, shopkeeper of Public Distribution System and even dead have been allotted job cards and they have drawn money as wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in the state.
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.
With the government revising wages under MGNREGA, it could be another pressure point for rising inflation, if appropriate policy action to address the demand-supply gap is not in place, said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday.
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.
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