The Budget provides proof of the United Progressive Alliance government having forgotten the importance of its own “flagship schemes”.

Bhubaneswar: Alleging large scale irregularities in the implementation of the Centre’s flagship programme, Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the state, the Opposi

Jammu, March 30: While the budget from MGNREGA scheme witnesses a threefold increase in the next financial year, the Committee on Estimates, comprising members of both Assembly and Council, has obs

Tripura continues to be the leading state in the country in terms of average employment under the rural jobs scheme, with the state providing 72.39 person-days of work in the current fiscal, state’s Rural Development Minister Jitendra Chaudhury said Thursday.

Chaudhury told reporters that Tripura has been providing the highest average employment for the past three years under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

The Centre on Monday revised the wage rate under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and has decided to amend the Act to remove the existing disparity in minimum wage even as the matter is scheduled to come up before the Supreme Court on April 9.

The revision in the wage rate indexed to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour (CPIAL) will come into effect on April 1 and will prevail for the year 2012-13. It varies from State to State depending on the specific prevailing CPIAL and will entail an additional burden of Rs.472 crore on the Central exchequer.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is UPA's man with the political Midas touch. He needs to lend some of that magic to lift the economy out of its morass.

JAIPUR/ALWAR: In one of the biggest crackdowns on illegal mining in state's Mewat region in the recent past, police on Thursday arrested over 100 people from unlawful gravel mines in Pahari police station area in Bharatpur district and seized equipment worth crores of rupees. Besides, few persons were also detained.

New Delhi Allocation for UPA’s ambitious MNREGA scheme may have come down in the Union Budget but there would be no lack of funds for the rural job programme, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said today. The allocation for the scheme entitling employment to poor rural households has been reduced from R40,000 crore in 2011-2012 to R33,000 crore in the Budget presented by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee for 2012-2013.

Srinagar: The state government aims at planting 33.70 lakh saplings across the Valley in the coming months. The plantation season begins in the Valley after the harsh winter.

For the UPA Government which kept accusing Mayawati’s BSP of ignoring its flagship programmes in Uttar Pradesh, the latest Economic Survey has some food for thought.