As election arrives in West Bengal, the political parties have declared their poll manifestos and direct cash transfers remain as a significant focus in the pre-poll promises. While the Trinamool Congress(TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) have mostly focused on cash transfers, left and congress have emphasized on human rights & democratic rights, job creation, safety of women and action[Read More…]
Co-Written by Debmalya Nandy and NIlakshi Bhattacharyya The doldrums of the current political scenario is also witnessing a changing face of the society. Not just our citizenships, our sense of reasoning and rational thinking are under threat as well.. Amidst the NRC( National Register for citizens) and CAA( Citizenship Amendment Act) row and the turbulence brought about by the introduction[Read More…]
MGNREGA( Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) this year has almost come to a standstill. While the nation is debating the economic slowdown and falling demand in the rural areas , economists emphasizing that increase in the rural income and generating resources for the poor as a potential solution to the on going crisis, the so called world’s largest[Read More…]
The Bharatiya Janata party has returned to power with a thumping majority. The party had won 303 Loksabha seats on it’s own while the National Democratic Alliance( NDA) managed to bag 353 seats in all. The United Progressive Alliance(UPA) could manage only 85 seats while the congress party is reduced to 52 seats; 8 more than what it achieved in[Read More…]
Strengthening MGNREGA is important to alleviate rural distress The election manifesto of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been recently announced and MGNREGA has been completely ignored in the manifesto. While more than 13 crore people across the country are dependent on MGNREGA and it is being the biggest employment opportunity for the rural sector, not even a mention of NREGA[Read More…]
The Government of India’s official website shows that Jharkhand has failed terribly in MGNREGA implementation in 2018-19 while the country has seen a steady increase in work demands under the programme Jharkhand has gone through a rough patch in MGNREGA implementation in the financial year 2018-19. The implementation of MGNREGA was almost standstill for nearly about 6 months during[Read More…]
As the month of march progresses, there is great pressure from the administration to intensify the works but does the government have money to make timely payments to the workers? Workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) across India gathered at their nearest police stations to lodge complaints against the Prime Minister of India for irregularities and[Read More…]
The Central Government has forgotten that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee ACT is an employment generation programme and not merely a rural asset generation scheme. The idea of MGNREGA was conceived, based on the fact that the planning and implementation of the schemes will be done in a decentralized manner, which will honor the local and traditional knowledge[Read More…]
( All characters and incidents, referred in this piece are fictional) The rural India, today is governed by the urban technocratic mindset which is not always very helpful and often dangerous. While we often relate under development to the lack of awareness among the rural communities, the truth is the urban awareness on rural lifestyle and culture is negligible and[Read More…]
The successive governments have depended heavily on technology to deal with service delivery and leakages and the use of technology has almost become indispensible in the modern day governance approaches. As a result one can observe the mobile apps, websites, MIS data being the popular talking points among the top officials and technology has become a one stop solution to[Read More…]
The Panchayats of 17 districts of Jharkhand have not received 14th Finance Commission grants just as yet. Despite getting 6.4 billion from the finance commission, the state government could not provide funds to the panchayats, as the money has not been released as yet by the Treasury. While the Gram Panchayats were suppose to utilize this money for various basic[Read More…]
Co-Written by Kumar sanjay and Debmalya Nandy A lecture was organized on the fifth schedule of Indian Constitution, on Saturday in the Aryabhatta Auditorium of RU by the Welfare Department of Jharkhand Government. While addressing the program, the Governor Draupadi Murmu had said that currently ,there is no separate tribal Ministry in the state and had further added that she[Read More…]
The MNREGA Sahayata Kendras of Jharkhand have been working on strengthening the demand side of the grievance redress mechanism since their inception. The idea of a sahayata kendra led community driven grievance management and monitoring system is very recent but the experiences have been very rich and significant .The grievance redress policies and provisions as proposed in the MGNREGA ACT[Read More…]
The Ministry of Rural Development is restricting MNREGA from attaining it’s full potential and at the same time dictating it’s implementation by not honoring local knowledge and decision making. As per the ACT, the Gram Sabha has the sole power and responsibilities for the planning of the schemes under MNREGA and The Gram Panchayats will be responsible for identification of[Read More…]
FBI appears to be continuing investigation of Julian Assange 
And We Are Much More Than Our Uterus. (In Solidarity With the protesting wrestlers) 
Strike ends in Belsonika with reinstatement of 10 suspended workers 
A Man Without a Strategy: How Netanyahu Is Provoking Armed Intifada in the West Bank 
The Ancient Patterns of Migration 
Seven Reasons Why the Present Phase of Imperialism is the Most Dangerous Ever 
Unmasking Tourism’s Roadblocks 
Metro authorities humiliating ordinary commuters 
PLI Scheme- Do subsidies to profit-earning private manufacturers yield commensurate societal benefits? 
World Environment Day in India: Doing Justice with the Day 
Ben Roberts-Smith: The Breaking of a Plaster Saint 
Do we All need Religion? An Introspection 
Obama, Kissinger and the Nobel Peace Prize 
The Politics of Erdogan and Western Anxieties 
The Compulsion to Intervene – Why Washington Underwrites Violence in Ukraine 
Just War and Just War Theory 
Stolen Heirloom or poppycock 
‘Simply Inconceivable’ to Dump Fukushima Water in Pacific, Critics Say After Latest IAEA Report 
Eradicate Dowry, Eliminate Dowry Violence 
Growing number of elderly homeless in the US 
Rise Up in Solidarity with Protesting Wrestlers 
Plastic Pollution in Destinations: A Growing Threat to Environmental Sustainability 
The US Censors Dissenting Voices: On the Attacks Against the Midwestern Marx Institute 
The US Government Should At Least Listen to this Wisdom of its Top Experts on the Ukraine Crisis 
Indigenous Australians & Palestinians: Treaty, Truth, Voice, Referendum & Senator Lidia Thorpe 
Kya Sharmsaar hai hindustan……are wrestling champions of India going the Mohammed Ali way? 
Legislative Gaps Helping Overseas Shell Companies? 
Book Review: Marginalised but not Defeated 
When Will US Join Global Call to End Ukraine War? 
AUKUS, Congress and Cold Feet 
The Wars We Don’t (Care to) See – Aggression Made Easy 
Raising the Palestinian flag in Daley Plaza Center, Chicago: A powerful symbolic gesture 
Shocking Lack of Concern for World’s Safety by War Mongering Elite 
Has Hindutva been defeated in Karnataka? 
UN Agencies Warn ‘Acute Food Insecurity’ Likely to Worsen in 18 Hunger Hot Spots 
Meta and Privacy: The Economy of Data Transgressions 
A Response to The New York Times’ Ritualistic Denunciation of Mao’s Cultural Revolution… 
GM Crops Likely to Worsen Climate Change Related Problems for Farmers 
Symbolism of Sengol 
Forget GDP growth, it’s sustainable wellbeing we need to aim for 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
