Huge delays bog payment of wages under India's premier rural guarantee scheme floated by UPA, NREGS

By Our Representative
A report by a top data analysis site has revealed that, as per the latest government data, close to 66% of the all the wage payments made under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), a flagship programme of the former UPA government, were delayed in the year 2015-16.
Prepared by Rakesh Dubbudu, the report further reveals that close to 10 per cent of the wage payments were delayed for more than three months, and only 1.2 per cent of compensation has been paid against the delay.
Based on the annual performance report of the NREGS scheme for fiscal 2015-16, which was released recently by the NDA government, the report says, "Rs 35,062.93 crore was the total wage payments for the year 2015-16. Out of this amount, payment of 65.6 per cent or Rs 23,017.6 crore was delayed beyond the stipulated 15 days."
Pointing out that in as many as 14 States/union territories (UTs), more than 75 per cent of the wage payments in 2015-16 were delayed beyond the stipulated 15 days", the report shows that Meghalaya delayed topped the list with a delay in 99.2 per cent of payments, followed by Chhattisgarh (92 per cent) and 85.6 per cent in Punjab.
The report says, "More than 80 per cent of the wage payments were delayed in 10 different States/UTs", adding, "The percentage of wage payments delayed was more than the national average in 20 different states/UTs."
According to the report, "Manipur performed the best among states with only 16.9% wage payments delayed beyond the 15 day limit", adding, "Less than 50 per cent of the wage payments were delayed in only seven States/UTs."
In absolute numbers, the report says, "Out of the 38.6 crore wage payment transactions made in 2015-16, 24.1 crore transactions were delayed beyond the stipulated 15 days (around 62 per cent)."
It adds, "More than 90 per cent of the transactions were delayed in three States/UTs and more than 80 per cent were delayed in 12 states/UTs."
The report says, "More than 60 per cent of the transactions were delayed in 23 different States/UTs", with less than 20 of the transactions getting delayed in only two states -- Manipur and Andhra Pradesh.
In value terms, the report says, an amount of Rs 3,397.8 crore was "delayed" for payment of wages in 2015-16 "for more than three months -- which is 10 per cent of all the wage payments."
The report's analysis shows that the North-Eastern States suggested an interesting trend, with more than 70 per cent of the wage payments having been delayed for more than three months in Arunachal Pradesh, the highest for any State.
"Next in the list were Meghalaya, Nagaland and Assam", the report says, adding, however, "At the same time, Manipur and Mizoram reported less than 1 per cent of the wage payments delayed for more than three months."
The report says, "As per the new guidelines, the NREGS workers are entitled to receive delay compensation at the rate of 0.05 per cent of the unpaid wages per day for the entire duration of delay beyond the 16th day."
The report calculates, "A total of Rs 444.38 crore is the payable amount of compensation for a total of 821 crore delay days. Out of this amount, only Rs 9.6 Crore is approved (about 2.2 per cent) and only Rs 5.1 crore (about 1.2 per cent) is paid so far."
"Not a single rupee of delay compensation is approved in 19 States/UTs though Rs 127 crore of delay compensation is pending from those States."

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Green revolution "not sustainable", Bt cotton a failure in India: MS Swaminathan

Counterview Desk
In a recent paper in the journal “Current Science”, distinguished scientist PC Kesaven and his colleague MS Swaminathan, widely regarded as the father of the Green Revolution, have argued that Bt insecticidal cotton, widely regarded as the continuation of the Green Revolution, has been a failure in India and has not provided livelihood security for mainly resource-poor, small and marginal farmers.
Sharply taking on Green Revolution, the authors say, it has not been sustainable largely because of adverse environmental and social impacts, insisting on the need to move away from the simplistic output-yield paradigm that dominates much thinking. Seeking to address the concerns about local food security and sovereignty as well as on-farm and off-farm social and ecological issues associated with the Green Revolution, they argue in favour of what they call sustainable ‘Evergreen Revolution’, based on a ‘systems approach’ and ‘ecoagriculture’.
Pointing out that Evergreen Revol…

World Bank clarifies: Its 26th rank to India not for universal access to power but for ease of doing business

By Our Representative
In a major embarrassment to the Government of India, the World Bank has reportedly clarified that it has not ranked India 26th out of 130 countries for providing power to its population. The top international banker’s clarification comes following Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal’s claim that India has “improved to 26 position from 99” in access to electricity in just one year.

Some Hindu bodies in US defending BJP-RSS' divisive, violent activities: Agnivesh

Counterview Desk Last week, Washington DC saw speakers at a religious freedom roundtable, chaired by the US Ambassador for Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, express concern over "eroding" space for religious freedom in India. Dr Mike Ghouse, executive director, of the Center for Pluralism in Washington DC, referring to the roundtable, said in an email alert that Indian-Americans have "a moral duty to prevent India from being labeled as a Country of Particular Concern by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)".

Rejoinder: Inescapable to have Central Water Commission as strong technical body in India

By BN Navalawala*
This is with reference to Counterview Blog (December 5, 2018), "Modi govt 'shelves' water reforms report, shows 'no interest' in its recommendations", below mentioned are my comments/observations thereon:
A committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Dr. Mihir Shah, Former Member, Planning Commission, for restructuring of Central Water Commission (CWC) and Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) for optimal development of water resources in the country in the backdrop of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).

Murder of Tamil Nadu teenage Dalit girl: "Stoic silence" despite #MeToo movement

Counterview Desk
Brinelle D'souza, who is with the Centre for Health and Mental Health, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, has prepared a strong statement to protest the brutal murder of 13-year-old Rajalakshmi. "Other than a few media reports, this gruesome killing has not caught national attention despite a very vibrant #MeToo campaign currently underway", regrets D'souza.

Preventing childhood deaths: India performs worse than Bangladesh, "equals" Pakistan

By Rajiv Shah
A just-released study, “The Pneumonia and Diarrhea Progress Report 2018”, prepared by the International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has identified India among 15 other countries which are still far off the mark in achieving the targets of the Global Action Plan for the Prevention of Pneumonia and Diarrhea (GAPPD).

60 ex-civil servants seek release of CAG reports on Rafale, demonetisation before 2019 polls

Counterview Desk
As many as 60 retired civil servants have asked President Ram Nath Kovind to expedite the release of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports on demonetisation and the Rafale deal. The letter, signed mainly by former Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service and Indian Police Service officers, regrets that the status of the audit is "unclear”. According to them, “An impression is gaining ground that CAG is deliberately delaying its audit reports on demonetisation and Rafale deal till after the May 2019 elections so as not to embarrass the present government”.

India's rewritten textbooks talk of demerits of democracy, praise Hitler, underrate Mughals

Counterview Desk
A detailed, 3,800-word review of the books rewritten under directions of the BJP rulers across India since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in May 2014 has suggested that one of aims of the books is to instill a sense of doubt about India’s democratic polity among the country’s young minds. Reviewed in the prestigious US journal, “The New York Review of Books”, in its latest issue (December 6, 2018) by Alex Traub, the scrutiny insists, the effort has also been to paint Indian history from the angle of “Hindu triumphalism”, even as creating “Islamophobia”.

Govt of India "tarnishing" NGO reputation, dossier leaked selectively: Amnesty

Counterview Desk
Amnesty International India has said that a deliberate attempt is being made to tarnish its reputation by leaking a dossier, supposedly made by investigating agencies, to media without giving it access to any such information. The high profile NGO’s claim follows a Times Now report about proceedings launched by investigative agencies, including Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the rights body for “violations” of rules pertaining to overseas donations.

Four children die after poor UP Dalit, Muslim families forced to flee to forest area: PVCHR

Counterview Desk
Peoples’ Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) has said that the forest department police’s crackdown, allegedly without any prior notice, on Dalit and Muslim households in Dakhin Tola, Churk Bazaar, Sonbhadra district, Uttar Pradesh, beating up “children and old people, women, and men in an inhuman way”, has led to “forced displacement, starvation and discrimination”. This has reportedly affected about 350 people.

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