At least 22 Uttar Pradesh government officials have been suspended for their alleged bungling of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) funds.
'We cannot leave our entire unorganised sector to the vagaries of market forces.'
The scheme guarantees 100 days work per household in a year and had been providing a major chunk by June each year.
This step has been taken by the DM after all his efforts to spur the staff failed and the district continued to be placed among the least performing districts of the state in implementation of the scheme, the ADM added.
Although India is a labour-surplus economy with an unlimited number of workers willing to work at a subsistence wage a paradoxical feature of the labour market is the rising incidence of scarcity or shortages amid a situation of potential plenty.
The project titled 'Thanal' launched by Edavaka Gram Panchayat with MGNREGS help, has provided less strenuous jobs for 600 senior citizens, including 250 tribals and 10 physically challenged in 15 nursery units, Panchayat President, Justine Baby has said.
The Tamil Nadu development formula makes programmes like the NREGS work through simple but top-down solutions.
Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has said states would not be allowed to ignore the findings of the social audits notified recently by his ministry on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
Under the plan being worked out, the labour component of the railway projects, which include the expansion of train lines or conversion of line gauge, would be funded from NREGS, as most of these projects require a large labour force and generate employment opportunities in rural areas.
"It may be a wild thought now. But the first Green Revolution came about as a result of very high water guzzling cropping systems from the irrigated regions of the country. But the NREGA holds the trigger for a second Green Revolution from the rain-fed areas, but using water conserving technologies and working with the smaller and poorer farmers while the first revolution came from the big farmers," Dr. Sharma said.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said the rural spending would not be affected by the drought situation caused by delayed monsoon, but was likely to improve due to the government's flagship NREGS. He said there would be some revival in the third and fourth quarters though the overall growth would be moderate, with the current year recording a growth rate of 6 per cent.
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.
An activist working for the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme was killed after being mercilessly beaten by a group of 12 Maoists at Jerua village in Latehar district of Jharkhand.
Government managers are asking for a 60 per cent rise in allocation for the scheme in the next financial year. Rs 20,854 crore (Rs 208.54 billion) had been spent on the scheme until December 2010. Rs 64,000 crore (Rs 640 billion) has been sought for the coming financial year.
The government's bill for funding the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has risen steeply, due to its decision to revise wage rates under these projects and to link these to the inflation rate.
The forthcoming Budget is likely to make a provision of Rs 64,000 crore (Rs 640 billion) for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in 2011-12, against Rs 40,100 crore (Rs 401 billion) in the current fiscal.
Top officials from the US department of labour, organisers of the event, said the innovative 100-day rural employment guarantee scheme has been successful beyond the expectations of almost every one.
The FMCG sector's demand growth will be powered by effective reduction in the personal taxes and increased allocation under NREGA, though hike in excise duty lead inflation is a cause for concern
"It is not true that there is 30-40 per cent siphoning," rural development minister C P Joshi told the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour.
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
Gandhi said he would bring in experts from Andhra Pradesh to suggest ways and means for proper implementation of NREGS.
Andhra Pradesh Rural Development Minister V Vasant Kumar on Tuesday said the daily wages paid to workers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in the state will be enhanced from May 1.
Grain stocks in the current procurement season will be enough to feed all those who go hungry, and the FCI only needs to invest in proper storage facilities.
About 4.5 crore (45 million) households across the country benefited from the pioneering National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the financial year 2008-09, an increase of 32 per cent over the previous year, says the Economic survey.
In a bid to woo villagers to benefit from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Orissa government on Tuesday decided to offer health insurance and a house under the Indira Awas Yojana to each labourer who completed 100 days work in a year, official sources said.
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.
It is true that, at 119 crore person-days, the employment created this year by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), the government's flagship programme, is tiny, a fraction of one percentage point of the total employment in the country.
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.
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.
Since there is no constraint on the availability of central funds for these programmes -- thanks to additional grants, over and above liberal allocations at the start -- tardy implementation by states seems wholly to blame for the lack of progress.
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.
The latest measure assumes importance as it has come to the notice of the Orissa government that the payment of wages to some NREGS workers is not made within a fortnight. In some districts, the wages are not paid to the workers for months together. It is reportedly causing resentment among people prompting them to abstain from work.
More people opting for work under the scheme would aggravate the shortage of workers in farms.
Put the poor who have voted for this government at the centre of reforms, says Sunita Narain.
"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.
The outlay for the flagship programmes, which -- in addition to the Bharat Nirman scheme -- include the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and others, is proposed to be raised to Rs 1,23,000 crore (Rs 1,230 billion) during 2009-10 from Rs 90,000 crore last year, representing an increase of about 37 per cent.
Amethi member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi's corporate style of electoral management is causing nightmares to those seeking Congress tickets for the forthcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
The debate on whether economic reforms and accelerated economic growth have led to faster reduction in poverty levels and employment growth continues to generate disagreement.
A total of 22.05 crore applications were received during the period.
The thrust on agriculture, removal of Fringe Benefit Tax etc should help improve the earnings of the FMCG sector
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