After NREGA, auditor will cover . 99,000 cr of rural development ministry’s spending. The rural development ministry has deepened its engagement with the Comptroller and Auditor-General.

Money to be used to strengthen distribution channels for successful implementation of Food Security Bill

NREGS needs a combination of resources that the state governments find it virtually impossible to muster; it is designed for imperfection

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) failed to stop the migration of farm labourers in search of livelihood in East Godavari district. A large number of labourers, especially from Narendrapuram of Rajanagaram mandal, are leaving their village in search of work to Nidadavole, Tadepalligudem and other areas in West Godavari district. More than 100 families, along with their children, are travelling on bullock carts with their belongings like cots, utensils, and clothes to other places to eke out their livelihood.

With the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) set to be extended to all districts from April 2008, the Ministry of Rural Development has sent letters to state governments asking them

Does away with middlemen; ten States keen to replicate model The implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) through biometric smart cards in Andhra Pradesh has attracted nationwide attention, with many States planning to adopt a similar method. Financial Information Network and Operations Ltd (FINO), a Mumbai-based technology solutions provider, is presently implementing NREGS in five districts of Andhra Pradesh by paying wages through biometric smart cards. "The hassle-free mode of payment sans middlemen has become a hit with the unskilled manual labourers. Encouraged by the feedback, at least 10 other States, including Orissa, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, are showing interest in adopting similar methods,' Mr Rishi Gupta, Chief Financial Officer and President (Sales), FINO, told Business Line over phone from Mumbai. Implementation After a successful pilot programme in eight mandals of Warangal and Karimnagar districts, the payment of pension and National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme wages are now being paid through smart cards in 259 villages

DOWN TO EARTH Sunita Narain / New Delhi February 26, 2008 It was the mid-1980s, environmentalist Anil Agarwal was on a mission: to track down the person who had conceptualised the employment guarantee scheme in Maharashtra. His hunt (I tagged along) led him to a dusty, file-paper filled office in the secretariat. There we met V S Page. I remember a diminutive, soft-spoken man, who explained to us why in 1972 when the state was hit with crippling drought and mass migration of people, it had worked on a scheme under which professionals working in cities would pay for employment in villages.

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,