Articles by: Debmalya Nandy

West Bengal poll manifestos: Dole Politics vs Social Welfare

West Bengal poll manifestos: Dole Politics vs Social Welfare

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…]

by 27/03/2021 Comments are Disabled India
Not Just Citizenships, Our Conscience and Ethics Too Are Put To Test

Not Just Citizenships, Our Conscience and Ethics Too Are Put To Test

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…]

by 12/01/2020 Comments are Disabled India
Labourers work on a dried lake to try and revive it under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) at Ibrahimpatnam, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, June 17, 2009. The government has started a pilot project to quantify climate benefits from the NREGA, the anti-poverty scheme that could become one of the country's main weapons to fight criticism it is not doing enough to tackle global warming. The flagship anti-poverty plan, started three years ago, provides 100 days of employment every year to tens of millions of rural poor, a move that partly helped the Congress party-led coalition return to power in a general election. REUTERS/Krishnendu Halder (INDIA ENVIRONMENT BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT)

The MGNREGA Slowdown

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…]

by 18/10/2019 Comments are Disabled India
The Strange Political Case of Bengal – The rise of BJP at the cost of Communist Ideologies

The Strange Political Case of Bengal – The rise of BJP at the cost of Communist Ideologies

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…]

by 07/06/2019 1 comment India
BJP Ignores MGNREGA 

BJP Ignores MGNREGA 

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…]

by 26/04/2019 Comments are Disabled India
Jharkhand’s poor show in MGNREGA continue

Jharkhand’s poor show in MGNREGA continue

  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…]

by 21/04/2019 Comments are Disabled India
The MGNREGA fund puzzle-  Why the workers are angry?

The MGNREGA fund puzzle-  Why the workers are angry?

 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…]

by 09/03/2019 Comments are Disabled India
The Crisis of MGNREGA

The Crisis of MGNREGA

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…]

by 04/02/2019 1 comment India
The problem with  rural India being  governed by the urban mindsets

The problem with  rural India being  governed by the urban mindsets

 ( 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…]

by 10/01/2019 Comments are Disabled India
All head and no heart-The Story of Digital Governance

All head and no heart-The Story of Digital Governance

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…]

by 28/12/2018 1 comment India
Jpeg

17 districts Yet to get  14th Finance Commission funds,  The Panchayat Mukhia’s of Jharkhand are on a “pen down” strike

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…]

by 18/11/2018 1 comment India
Subhash Kashyap  did not have  answer to hard questions posed at him on fifth schedule during Ranchi Event

Subhash Kashyap  did not have  answer to hard questions posed at him on fifth schedule during Ranchi Event

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…]

by 11/11/2018 Comments are Disabled India
A Sahayata Kendra for Accountable Governance

A Sahayata Kendra for Accountable Governance

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…]

by 08/11/2018 1 comment India
Slow Death of MNREGA

Slow Death of MNREGA

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…]

by 22/10/2018 1 comment India