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.
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.
President Droupadi Murmu has given her assent to the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, which aims to replace MGNREGA and guarantee 125 days of wage employment per rural household.
A bill to repeal the MGNREGA and introduce a new rural employment law, the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), has been circulated among Lok Sabha members.
Despite facing financial constraints, Kerala has been able to invest in welfare schemes and targeted programmes.
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.
The bridge, constructed by the rural works department at a cost of Rs 10 crore, was not opened to the public as approach roads were yet to be constructed.
Alamgir Alam had distanced himself from the activities of Lal while speaking to reporters after the ED raids, pointing out that he had earlier served with other ministers of the state government too.
While there are some new faces in the cabinet, leaders such as BJP president JP Nadda and Jual Oram have returned as ministers.
Among the new entrants to the Union cabinet, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been given the agriculture and rural development portfolios, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda the health portfolio and former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar the power portfolio.
Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and several other party leaders were detained on Tuesday night as they held a dharna at the Union Rural Development Ministry office in New Delhi demanding a meeting with the minister and released around three hours later.
This is the fourth such recruitment drive proposed to be undertaken by the Narendra Modi government which had in 2018 initiated lateral entry.
'It has been an ongoing process, talking to the relevant ministries about eliminating leakages and curbing non-core expenditure in various schemes.'
'The President of India, as advised by the prime minister, has accepted the resignation of Harsimrat Kaur Badal from the Union Council of Ministers, with immediate effect,' the Rashtrapati Bhavan said in a statement.
Instructions from the Union rural development ministry to the state officials on the WhatsApp group show that the chat was also used as an off-record avenue for the Union government to pass instructions, which it could not have done through formal channels, keeping the law in mind.
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.
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.
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.
Good monsoon is likely to create more jobs in the agriculture sector, which in turn could save the exchequer around Rs 10,000 crore
Around 40 per cent of the country is staring at drought-like conditions ahead of the monsoon as water levels have receded sharply.
A labour ministry note sent to the rural development ministry (MoRD) says the minimum wage notified in each state - often higher than the NREGA set one - has to be paid. But MoRD has written to the PMO that the NREGA enactment has clauses that exempt it from all other laws, including the Minimum Wages Act. Hence, MoRD is not legally obliged to pay at any other rate.
The chief minister pointed out that out of that figure, Rs 1,815 crore (Rs 18.15 billion) was a liability and not received from the Government of India.
It was under his stewardship of the Union Rural Development Ministry that NREGA, the flagship rural livelihood scheme, was implemented.
Sources said the rural development ministry has sought an additional Rs 20,000 crore for MGNREGA for 2019-20 over and above the budgeted Rs 60,000 crore for 2019-20. Though, all of the PM-KISAN savings may not be transferred to fund MNGREGA's extra needs, sources said a part of this could be transferred.
The government has budgeted for total expenditure of Rs 34.83 lakh crore or 6.8 per cent of GDP. While the net tax revenue rose from Rs 5,75,697 crore in October 2020 to Rs 10,53,135 crore till October 2021, a growth of 82.93 per cent annualized, total expenditure rose only by 9.95 per cent, led by infra spending to Rs 18,26,725 crore from Rs 16,61,454 crore during the same period, the RBI said in the financial stability report.
The rural development ministry has asked NGO's to run the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in in Naxal-hit areas.
'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.
Ahead of a meeting of Group of Ministers, the rural development ministry sought to allay apprehensions of industries and infrastructure sectors over the controversial land acquisition bill, contending that the amendments in the legislation are investor-friendly.
Centre's off-the-record instructions through WhatsApp and a squeeze on funds brought the rural work programme to collapse after a roaring first half of the year.
The controversial Land Acquisition Bill was on Thursday cleared by the Union Cabinet, making mandatory the consent of 80 per cent of people whose land is taken for private projects.
After UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had intervened and asked government to take consent from 80 per cent land owner for purchase of land.
Ramesh opposes Pawar's plan to provide cheap labour to farmers under NREGS.
Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh on Friday visited Bastar in Chhattisgarh to understand the implementation of rural development schemes in the area.
Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh lays out the roadmap for rural growth --- without mincing words.
The job guarantee scheme is set to provide food grain as part of wages.
It was business as usual for Jairam Ramesh in his new rural development ministry where he held extensive meetings with officials on his first day that stretched past midnight.
The statistics (compiled till May), presented and analysed by the Performance Review Committee of the ministry last week, show that states run by UPA governments have not made much advance in implementing its signature rural development schemes.
The Union rural development ministry has recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into two separate cases of murder related to corruption and wage demands in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Jharkhand.
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