The Finance Ministry allocated 22 per cent less funds for MGNREGA in revised estimates for the current financial year (2023-24), as compared to Rs 1.1 lakh crore sought by the Rural Development Ministry,
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 is a law whereby: any adult who is willing to do unskilled manual work at the minimum wage is entitled to being employed on local public
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, (NREGA) was enacted with the objective of enhancing livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year, to every household whose adult
Residents of Panihari village are now a happy lot. They are celebrating freedom from floods for the first time in living memory. Agricultural wages have incresed across the district in the past one year. They say their lives have improved because of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).
Centre for Environment Concerns (CEC), Hyderabad, in association with over two hundred activists and select voluntary organizations is assisting officials in select districts in implementing the NREGA in Andhra Pradesh. This is based on a memorandum of understanding between CEC and the Department of Rural Development and agreed upon as voluntary service and thus without remuneration.
Cong for centralised monitoring In an effort to deny the opposition of any credit for the UPA government's flagship programme, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), a Congress delegation led by its apparent-heir Rahul Gandhi today asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today to introduce centralised monitoring of this ambitious scheme. "Since the Centre allots a large amount of money for this programme, it should monitor how state governments are spending the funds allocated for the NREGA,' the delegation told the Prime Minister when it called on him in his Parliament House office to discuss the implementation of the programme. This suggestion follows serious concern in the Congress that opposition-ruled states are taking credit for this scheme as the state governments are responsible for its implementation although the funds are provided by the Centre. Faced with a series of Assembly polls this year, the Congress does not want the Opposition to walk away with all the accolades and would instead like the party to reap electoral benefit from this scheme, especially since it was launched at its behest. Rahul, who had led a similar delegation to the Prime Minister to press for the universalisation of the programme and succeeded in his mission, said they had given several suggestions on improving the implementation of the programme. "I don't think it is fair to lambast the programme
Youth brigade: (From left) Jyotiraditya Scindia, Rahul Gandhi, Jitin Prasad, Deepender Hooda, Tejaswini Sri Ramesh and other MPs after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Thursday. Congress MP and general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday led a delegation of MPs to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for centralised monitoring of the programme under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. There is a demand to expand the scheme from 330 districts to cover all 600 districts. This is the second time that Mr. Gandhi has met the Prime Minister on NREGA, a flagship programme of the UPA government. However, there have been several complaints about the manner in which the programme, meant to give 100 days of employment to one able-bodied person in a rural household, was being implemented by States. "We met the Prime Minister to discuss the implementation of the NREGA. We gave some suggestions on how we can improve its implementation,' Mr. Gandhi told journalists after the meeting. He said they made some points for its better implementation. The delegation sought social auditing mechanisms to identify those who deserved to be in the programme and those who did not. For this, they sought the creation of an IT infrastructure "which would make available at the press of a button the beneficiaries and make for greater accountability,' said party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi. He said the MPs urged the Prime Minister to ensure that NREGA was operationalised nation-wide in a transparent and participatory manner. "Since the programme is largely funded by the Centre, the delegation felt that the Central government should monitor how States were spending allocations and promote mutual learning amongst States by following best practices of specific State governments, such as Andhra Pradesh.' The Prime Minister is understood to have assured the delegation that he would look into their demands. Among those who accompanied Mr. Gandhi were Jyotiraditya Scindia, Tushar Amarsinh Choudhry, Milind Deora, Sandeep Dixit, Deepender Hooda, Jitin Prasad, Pallam Raju, Devavrata Singh, Tejaswini Sri Ramesh and Balashowry Vallabhaneni.
First, it was Congress President Sonia Gandhi publicly indicating to Finance Minister P Chidambaram the direction she wanted the budget to take
The All Assam Gramin Sramik Santha (AAGSS) and the Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Krishan Sramik Sabha (KANCKSS) have submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the office of the Deputy Commissioner demanding an CBI inquiry into the alleged NREGA scam involving issue of job cards which came to light after a Comptroller and Auditor General interim report. The organizations have alleged that original candidates who applied for the job cards have been ignored. They have demanded that the State Government hold a special session of the State Assembly to discuss the failure of the implementation of the NREGA scheme and issue a White Paper on the matter. The memorandum stated that there must be strict legally enforceable provisions whereby 100 days salary is cut from the pay of panchayat and block officers if 100 days job guarantee and payment of minimum wages is not ensured. It also stated that the policy of restricting the poor to a pre-fixed "BPL quota' be rolled back and publish a fresh list based on comprehensive ground survey. It also demanded that job cards must be issued to all poor families who demands it. The scheme must also guarantee 200 days of work per family in a year and make the number of job-card holders the basis for budgetary allocation for NREGA. Both the AAGSS and KANCKSS have stated that if the Government ignore their demands they would resort to an agitational programme from March 1.
Economy on the move: The President, Ms Pratibha Patil, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, and the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr P.R. Dasmunshi, arriving to attend the first day of the Budget Session at Parliament House in the Capital on Monday.
It is not possible to realise the massive potential of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act if we deploy the same ossified structure of implementation that has deeply institutionalised corruption, inefficiency and non-accountability into the very fabric of Indian democracy.
