In the wake of a CAG report pointing to "significant deficiencies' in the implementation of UPA Government's flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, the Union Rural Development Ministry has decided to keep all the In a recent letter to all MPs, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad has informed them about the new steps taken by his Ministry in this regard and requested their active engagement in the implementation of the scheme in their respective constituencies. According to sources, the Ministry, in collaboration with National Informatics Centre, has developed a software which can segregate data on the schemes for each districts. This data would then be e-mailed to MPs on a monthly basis from February onwards. In the beginning, the Ministry will send the monthly reports on its three main schemes

The newly introduced National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has succeeded in getting positive response in Barkshetri development block areas in Nalbari district especially among the labour class people. In this minority-dominated development block which has three gaon panchayats in char areas, work of about Rs 4.50 crore are under way and more than 2000 labourers are getting daily work in those projects.

Over one lakh families in Mizoram have been affected by the ongoing shortage of food due to the gregarious bamboo flowering which has triggered a famine like situation in the State. According to official records submitted by Deputy Commissioners of all the eight districts, rural people depending on cultivation have been facing immense hardship due to Mautam while those in urban areas were not spared either, though their sufferings are nominal. Armies of rodents ravaged annual crops like paddy, maize, chili worth Rs 41,138.57 lakh, the report said, adding perennial crops

A V Rajwade / New Delhi February 18, 2008 Advertising for the NREGA on the BBC shows just how mindlessly the programme is being implemented.

IMPHAL, Feb 17

Micro-finance is the key to helping India's poorest

National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme provides for 100 man days of work for a person a year Ariyalur Collector Xavier Chriso Nayagam (right), with students of Meenakshi Ramasami College at Thathanur in Ariyalur district enrolled under NREGP. ARIYALUR: For 200 students of Meenakshi Ramasami College tucked in Thathanur, a nondescript village near Jayamkondam in Ariyalur district,