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Dear friends, A lot has been happening within the government on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Most importantly, the national guidelines for the Act are close to being finalized - a draft of the same has been sent to the Planning Commission for comments. The draft guidelines are available online at http://www.righttofoodindia.org/data/nrega05guidelines.doc (the file is quite large and takes a while to open - please be patient). If you have any comments which you haven't yet sent in, please send them to the Ministry (c/o Amita Sharma: [EMAIL PROTECTED]) and please send a copy at this address also ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), this will help us to keep track of the whole discussion. The list of 200 districts that will be included initially has now been finalised and is also available online at http://www.righttofoodindia.org/data/nrega05districts.doc. Also, there have been some news items regarding the launch of the scheme on 1 April, 2006. Many state governments seem to have started the process of designing the state-specific "Employment Guarantee Scheme" and of framing the rules. Do keep track of what is happening in your state and get involved in the process of framing the Scheme and Rules. Finally, a recent news item on the NREGA: "The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 has been notified on September 7, 2005. Under the Act, Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes (NREGS) are to be formulated by the State Governments while the Panchayati Raj Institutions are to be the "principal authorities" for planning and implementation. The Ministry of Rural Development has addressed all the State Governments on November 17, 2005 regarding undertaking several activities relating to the implementation of the Act, including detailing the roles and responsibilities of the Panchayats in planning and implementation and to initiate preparatory activities that include sensitization of Panchayati Raj Institutions about the provisions of the Act and their roles and responsibilities under the Act. It has been stated that this would be a large scale exercise on a recurrent basis and a training calendar should be drawn up immediately by States. The Act is likely to be implemented in 200 districts of the country in the first phase of its implementation. The estimated expenditure for the first phase of implementation of the Act is of the order of Rs. 17,103 crore. This information was given in Lok Sabha today by the Minister of Panchayati Raj Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar in a written reply." (Source: http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=13979]) Reetika _________________________________ Labour Notes South Asia (LNSA): An informal archive and mailing list for trade unionists and labour activists based in or working on South asia. LNSA Mailing List: Labour Notes South Asia To subscribe send a blank message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> LNSA Web site: groups.yahoo.com/group/lnsa/ Run by The South Asia Citizens Web www.sacw.net _________________________________ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To join the Labour Notes South Asia Mailing List, send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lnsa/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
