To boost rural income, the government could raise the total MGNREGA Budget for 2020-21 to Rs 70,000 crore. In 2019-20 (FY20), it was Rs 60,000 crore
Almost all states have raised much more debt than at the same time last year, except Maharashtra.
This is to push liquidity into rural hands to kick-start consumption cycle
Young people opting for MGNREGA work is worrying
Says cutback in funds will adversely affect inter-state connectivity, hails enhanced allocation for rail projects
The flagship rural development scheme has drawn up a detailed plan of over 200,000 works to be taken up for water conservation in nearly 1,100 water-stressed districts
Lawmakers and the activists say MGNREGA fund crunch comes when there is distress across rural India.
Many don't buy the Centre's claim that fund flows to the scheme for wage payments have smoothened
The panel is chaired by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan
Activists claim that of the allocated Rs 550 bn for FY19, 86% already spent with five months still left
In total, infrastructure in around 22,000 rural haats is to be upgraded and modernised with a corpus of almost Rs 20 bn spread over 2-3 years
In social audit, citizens themselves assess the impact of government schemes and programmes by comparing official records with actual ground situation
Won't lead to subsiding private farm labour, say officials
An independent body of 'Social Audit Society' has been set up in the state under the MNREGA
The committee will also suggest how the Act can be used to incentivise aggregation and market infrastructure, rehabilitate agricultural land
MGNREGA glitches need to be fixed
After getting large-scale complaints of workers for not getting payment on time despite early release of funds
Despite several measures, payment holdups are rampant because method of delay compensation is flawed
Though the Central government claims a big drop in delay in payment of wages of MGNREGA workers in the first four months of 2017-18, civil society activists today alleged that a big reason for the improved performance is wrong process of calculating delays in contravention of the Act.As per MGNREGA wage delays and compensation for the delay has to be calculated till wages are deposited in the bank account of workers, however, activists alleged that the Centre in its master circular of 2017-18 has said that Management Information System (MIS) is designed to calculate delays only upto the time the Fund Transfer Order (FTO) is generated by the state government for the second time. FTO is an electronic voucher which is generated by the MGNREGA software that lists the name of worker who has done the work along with the amount of wage payable to him, calculated on the basis of the work done. This voucher is signed by the state government. Activists say that estimating delays from the time ..
Expected to add an additional burden of Rs 4,500 crore on the exchequer.