Prelims – 31th Oct 23

MGNREGA/MGNREGS

• The MG National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), also known as MGNREGS is an Indian legislation enacted in 2005.
• It provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage.
• The MoRD, Government of India, is monitoring the entire implementation of this scheme in association with state governments.

Objectives of MGNREGS:

• It aims to improve the purchasing power of the rural people by giving people living below poverty line primarily semi or un-skilled work.
• It attempts to bridge the gap between the rich and poor in the country and leads to women empowerment as roughly one-third of the stipulated work force must be women.

Procedure to Enrol under the MGNREGS:

• Adult members of rural households submit their name, age and address with a photo to the Gram Panchayat.
• The Gram Panchayat registers households after making enquiry and issues a job card.
• The job card contains the details of the adult member enrolled and his/her photo.
• Registered person can submit an application for work in writing (for at least fourteen days of continuous work) either to Panchayat or to Programme Officer.
• The employment will be provided within a radius of 5 km and if it is above 5 km extra wage will be paid.

Right to Information Act, 2005

• The RTI is derived from the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 of the Constitution.
  • If we do not have information on how our Government and Public Institutions function, we cannot express any informed opinion on it.
• The basic object of the RTI Act is to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government.
• The Act and its rules define a format for –
  • requisitioning information,
  • a time period within which information must be provided,
  • a method of giving the information,
  • charges for applying and
  • exemptions of information which will not be given.
• Key Provisions of the RTI Act include –
  • Section 4 of the Act imposes an obligation on public authorities to maintain its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and form which facilitates the RTI under the Act.
  • Sec. 6 of the Act entitles a person desirous of obtaining any information under the Act, to make a request in writing to the Central or State Public Information Officer specifying the particulars of the information sought by him.
  • Sec. 7 of the Act requires the Public Information Officer to either provide the information or reject the request for any of the reasons specified in Secs. 8 and 9 within 30 days of receipt of the request.
  • Under Sec. 19, if a person does not receive a decision within 30 days or is aggrieved by a decision of the Public Information Officer, he may prefer an appeal to an Officer who is senior in rank to the Public Information Officer in that Public Authority.
  • Exemptions under the Act – the information sought must not be related to defence, national security, or personal details.

Sendai Framework 2015-2030

• The Sendai Framework works hand in hand with the other 2030 Agenda agreements, including The Paris Agreement on Climate Change, The Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development, the New Urban Agenda, and ultimately the SDGs.
• It was endorsed by the UN General Assembly following the 2015 Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR).
• It advocates for the substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods, and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural, and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities, and countries.
• State has the primary role to reduce disaster risk but that responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders including local government, the private sector, and other stakeholders.