More than 6.7 million families across Pakistan are living in extreme poverty, Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) estimated.

The social safety net project has identified.

The government has also decided to extend full BISP package (including cash grants and other programme such as Waseela-e-Haq, Waseela-e-Rozgar, Waseela-e-Sehat and Waseela-e-Taleem) to families of bomb blast victims.

Documents obtained by Business Recorder showed that there were 40 million individuals in Pakistan who were living in extreme poverty.

New Delhi, 18 MAY: Finding faults with the MGNREGA scheme, a Parliamentary Panel has said that there was confusion over its definition of the term 'households' which was being twisted to suit male heads of families which should be corrected. In its report, the Committee on empowerment of Women in Rural areas said that due to this confusion the scheme was not reaching its targeted beneficiaries.

Mumbai: An ambitious plan of the Maharashtra government to undertake a tree plantation drive involving 100 crore new saplings will fall short of its target this year. Due to technical difficulties, the state government has revised its target from the 100 crore to 30 crore for this year. The balance 70 crore will be included in the revised target for the next year, an official said.

The government on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha about the expansion of the scope of activities permitted under the rural job guarantee scheme by including 30 new activities. These will supplement agricultural and animal husbandry operations along with flood management and sanitation-related works in rural India.

The rural development minister. Mr Jairam Ramesh, today tabled the ‘MNREGA 2.0’ ~ the second generation reforms for the rural job scheme ~ in both Houses of Parliament. However, the rural development ministry now seems to be heading for a “cold war” with the finance minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, who yesterday mooted distribution of foodgrain to NREGA workers in view of bumper production.

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday stayed the arrest of a block pramukh from Gonda, charged under Gangster Act in connection with MNREGS scam in the district. A division bench of Justice Abdul Mateen and Justice SK Saxena said that block pramukh shall not be arrested till substantial material comes against her or the police report is submitted in the court.

New Delhi: Union govt has ranked the sikkim state as best state in the country in the category of smaller states for its outstanding performance in strengthening and developing the panchayati raj institutions in the state Union Rural Development Minister Sh Jai Ram Ramesh and Union Minister of Panchayati Raj and Tribal Development Sh V.Kishore Chandra Deo on Tuesday presented ( Panchayat empowernment and incentivising schemen award) PEAIS 2011-12 award to Sh C.B.Karki Sikkim Rural Management and Development Department Minister during national conference to celebrate the national panchayat raj day function in vigyan bhawan new delhi on Tuesday .

Notwithstanding the marginal decline in spendings under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) over the past two years, Himachal has the best performance indicators, putting it in the league of top-performing states. The total expenditure under the scheme came down from Rs 556.55 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 516.34 crore in 2010-11 and further fell to Rs 509.43 crore in the last financial year.

MGNREGA can only succeed if politics is taken seriously in the design of accountability mechanisms. Does political competition enhance a poor person’s access to anti-poverty initiatives such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA)? Just as some economists believe that competition is an effective way to improve management and productivity, in politics too, some hold that political competition is better than single-party monopoly, because it forces political parties to appeal to a larger swathe of groups and forces them away from special interest policies.