Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi July 30, 2008, 0:50 IST

The UPA government is planning to amend the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to redefine the beneficiaries under the Act.

At present, the Act provides 100 days of work per household. The idea is to substitute the word

Ramlal, a rickshaw puller in Delhi, regrets his decision four years ago to vote for the Congress. He felt then that the Congress

Fund will not be a constraint to provide 100 mandays work to the job cardholders with the Union Government pumping the highest-ever allocation to carry out the national flagship scheme

Jean Dr

GUWAHATI, July 16: The Assam Assembly today witnessed a heated discussion over the underutilization of Sampurna Gramin Rojgar Yojana (SGRY) funds and failure of the Government to get the SGRY's term extended in the State to execute the pending schemes. The Opposition criticized the State Government's failure to extend the term of the SGRY by two months even after the Assembly had passed a proposal to that effect earlier. The Government also came under attack for the anomalies in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in the State.

JORHAT, July 16: As many as 37,500 new jobs have been created for the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) schemes in the State. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who inaugurated the NREGA schemes for Jorhat district at an official function held at Kalakunj public hall at Borholla in Titabor subdivision last weekend, said that the posts of gram rojgar sahayaks and nayaks would fulfil the employment needs of the rural youths.

The Rural Workers Association (RWA) and the district administration here are on a collision course over the non-payment of wages to workers, unemployment allowance to those eligible and non-availability of work for 1,500 job card holders under the NREGA in Khalwahan, Khani, Thata and Bung panchayats in the district.

RWA convener Lawan Thakur and president Sant Ram met the district NREGA coordinator here today.

They said they had brought these issues to the notice of the administration several times, but no action had been initiated to give relief to the rural workers so far.