Three days spent visiting villages in Bundelkhand and interacting with the aam admi is enough to convince one that the plethora of government social security schemes - the NREGA, the PDS, mid meals for children, old age pension, special schemes for tribals, etc - are a complete failure and do not reach most of the intended beneficiaries, at least in this region.
In the Raikwar basti of village Adiyara, District Chhatarpur, MP. Job cards but no jobs.
The view of 'grassroots democracy', the panchayati raj, that emerges from conversations with villagers is also an eyeopener. This visit is reported here
The Hindu carried an interesting news item today titled Many Punekars use option of negative vote . What is intrigueing is that the Pune District Collector apparently took steps to popularise the option before the Assembly elections, and hence the response. My analysis on the significance of the negative vote can be found here
