Labels matter

After Bimal Jalan released the Public Interest Foundation-NCAER report on the holes in the National Rural Employment Act (NREGA), and made his suggestions on how to plug them, someone in the audience asked whether it would be a better idea to club all the money spent on various anti-poverty programmes and instead just give cash to the intended beneficiaries. Jalan agreed that it might be better if a method could be found to ensure there were no leakages in the cash-transfers but, tongue firmly in cheek, he said this could be problematic since it would require closing down several schemes that were named after various politicians, both living and dead.