BHUBANESWAR: With the Centre fixing the wage under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) at Rs 100 a day per person, the flagship food security programme will benefit job seekers in the State.

While the minimum wage fixed by the State Government is Rs 90, registered job seekers under NREGS will now get Rs 10 more than the minimum wage.

To bridge the huge shortfall of police personnel, the Home Ministry has requested the 13th Finance Commission to scale up resources of state governments with the specific objective of augmenting rural policing.

MIRZA : The economic contribution made by the lakhs of poor people working in the backyard poultry units towards running the rural households is crucial. Indispensable part of almost every family, the non-descript local variety both of fowl and duck reared with zero input cost has ensured the nutritional requirement to the underprivileged section to some extent.

Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey

Before tinkering with the NREGA in the name of reforms, the government must ensure that the foundations of the scheme are strengthened. No change should be introduced without a rigorous debate that centrally involves its primary constituents.

A CENTRAL team led by Union home secretary G K Pillai recently visited the district government hospital in Senapati, Manipur, to checkout the health facilities available, only to find the operation theatre (OT) locked.

New Delhi: With concern being voiced over implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the Centre has convened an all-party meeting here on Wednesday to discuss how its flagship programme for rural development could be run more effectively.

AMIT AGNIHOTRI
Aug. 25: AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi's social initiative is already transforming the lives of thousands of rural women in the backward Bundelkhand region in UP even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is planning development projects there.

Our politics of poverty is characterised by our poverty of politics. Although poverty is the overwhelming fact of our national life, it is hardly the theme of our politics.

In a major boost to economic development of the rural areas of Darrang district, the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India has sanctioned an amout of Rs 12.83 crore for implementation of NREGA for the financial year 2009-10.

Health, a state of complete physical and mental well-being and not merely the absence of diseases as defined by WHO, is the prerequisite of all-round development inclusive of socio-economic prosperity. Though stress has been laid on ensuring better health delivery system in rural areas but lack of proper sanitation has been a matter of health hazard.