Itanagar, Jan 20, 2013: The Arunachal Pradesh Rural Development (RD) and Public Health Engineering (PHE) departments have agreed for convergence of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Assurance ( MG-NREGA) scheme works with Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) at gram panchayat level.

The decision to this effect was taken at a meeting here yesterday chaired by Power, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Tanga Byaling, official sources said today.

New Delhi, Dec. 10, 2012: States have failed to spend Rs 29,760 crore under various flagship programmes during the last fiscal, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said today.

He said during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha that Rs 10,993 crore remained unspent under Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and Rs 5,859 crore under Indira Aawas Yojana (IAY).

New Delhi, Nov. 5, 2012: The Centre was considering a proposal to equate the wages for works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) with the minimum wages prevailing in states, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today said.

"There are some states where the wages under NREGA are lower than the state-level minimum wages. The Union Government proposed to amend Section 6 (1) of NREGA to equate the wages with the state minimum wages," Ramesh told reporters here.

Convergence of MNREGA with Total Sanitation Campaign and National Rural Drinking Water Programme will help improve Human Development Indicators.

New Delhi, May 15, 2012: Union Rural Development Minister Shri Jairam Ramesh said that implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, MGNREGA is not satisfactory in the states like Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha. Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha, he said, despite poverty and unemployment in the three eastern states, demand for rural job is not so much as in the other well-to-do states.

New Delhi, MAy 15, 2012: The Union Minister for Rural Development Shri Jairam Ramesh said that Performance Audit of MGNREGA for all the States will be placed before Parliament in November this year. Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha, he said that his Ministry will receive the draft report by October end, as the audit is presently on in all the states. The Performance Audit of MGNREGA will cover the period from 2007 to 2011 and it must be underlined that Rural Development Ministry spends about 40,000 crore rupees each year on the job guarantee scheme.

New Delhi, May 8, 2012: A radically improved version of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) expanding the schedule of work under the rural job scheme to enhance productivity in 30 areas including watershed related works, agriculture, livestock, fisheries and sanitation has come into force on Tuesday.

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh tabled the ‘MNREGA 2.0’ — the second generation reforms for the rural job scheme — in both Houses of Parliament on Tuesday.

New Delhi, April 25, 2012:  Noting that the amount allocated for construction of toilets in rural areas was very low, the government today said it would hike the fund under the total sanitation programme from Rs 2,200 to Rs 9,900 per household. "

New Delhi, April 16, 2012: The Union Minister for Rural Development Shri Jairam Ramesh said that Performance Audit of MGNREGA for all the States will be placed before Parliament by the end of Winter Session of Parliament this year. Talking to media after meeting the Comptroller and Auditor General here, Shri Ramesh said that his Ministry will receive the draft report by October end and by the last week of November, the report will be finalised to present it before Parliament.