The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), once described by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “living monument of the UPA’s failure,” got its highest ever allocation — ₹48,000 crore — since its inception over a decade ago. Last June, the Rural Development Ministry had signed an agreement with the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), ISRO, Hyderabad, for geo-tagging assets. Around 30 lakh assets are created annually across the country under the rural job scheme, which includes water harvesting, drought relief and flood control as preferred activities. The geo-tagging initiative follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s directive to check leakages and effectively map the terrain for future developmental works. In this year’s budget, the allocation for the Rural Development Ministry has also been increased by more than 10 per cent to ₹1,07,758 crore from ₹97,760 crore.

Source: The Hindu February 01, 2017 22:30 UTC