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Title: Funds for rural job scheme ending up with wealthy states, says panel
Source:Mint
Date:16 January 2017

Government funds meant for the rural poor under the MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) are ending up in wealthy states rather than those with the greatest concentration of landless labourers and the poor, says a panel of experts. In its report submitted to the rural development ministry, the panel constituted to identify beneficiaries and prioritize funds for their uplift recommended that MGNREGS prioritize people suffering from multiple deprivations in order to reduce poverty. The recommendations are based on data from the SECC (Socio-Economic Caste Census) started in 2011 and concluded in 2015 which was the first such exercise in seven decades. The SECC evolved some exclusion criteria that would determine whether a rural household was eligible for government assistance. For instance, a household is automatically excluded if it has: a motorized vehicle, or a kisan credit card with a credit limit of over Rs50,000, members in government jobs or a member earning over Rs10,000 a month.




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