Centre reprimands J&K for ignoring social audit of MGNREGA works, non-appointment of Ombudsmen

Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, June 14: The Union Ministry of Rural Development  Department has reprimanded the J&K Government for ignoring the conduct of social audit of the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA works in the State and also not appointing the Ombudsmen and on non-formulation of Grievances  Redressal rules under NREGA which is mandatory for all the States.
Union Joint Secretary (MGNREGA-RDD), Aparajita Sarangi, in a strong communication to the Commissioner/ Secretary, Rural Development Department,  J&K Government, a week back, accused State RDD authorities for ignoring the Central guidelines and violating the rules  enacted for the proper implementation of  MGNREGA Scheme in the Jammu and Kashmir State. She pointed out that due to lack of proper supervision and monitoring  by the top RDD officers in various districts and sub-regions,  proper implementation of the Scheme is yet to be witnessed.
Sarangi pointed out that Ministry monitors key indicators of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA programme regularly to ensure effective implementation at all levels.   The Empowered Committee (EC) meeting held during March this year reviewed the performance of the State for the year 2016-17 and also approved the Labour budget for the year 2017-18.  During meeting,  several shortcomings  and violation of rules and other irregularities were pointed out while implementing NREGA in the J&K State, she maintained.
The Empowered Commi-ttee was unhappy over the delay being caused in the payment of wages to the Labour class members, engaged under MGNREGA  in various districts of the State. While the workers have been denied their hard earned wages for the months and years together under MGNREGA,   the delay compensation rules are also yet to be notified by the RDD authorities.
Referring to the issue of social audit, the Union Joint Secretary pointed out that a manual training of Village Resource Persons (VRP) on Social Audit has been shared with all the States in  the country. These trainings in additions to SRPs and District Resource Persons (DRPs) should be taken up on priority. The auditing standards have also been notified  by the Union RDD Ministry for conducting social audit of NREGA works in the State. It is unfortunate that J&K State has not complied  to the directives of the Union RDD Ministry, communiqué indicated.
Annoyed over the slow pace of work on Aadhar seeding of Bank accounts of the Labours engaged under NREGA in the State, the Union Ministry  expressed its displeasure  over the issue  and stressed the need to expedite the process. She said as per MIS report, 93641 of beneficiaries’ bank accounts have been seeded while 14358 of the Aadhar   seeded bank accounts   have been converted into ABPS.
The Union RDD Ministry further reprimanded the State RDD authorities for poor performance and slow pace of works initiated during the last financial year and said that many works were still incomplete. It indicated that even 38795 works of the financial year 2015-16 were still  pending or abandoned.  The Joint Secretary MGNREGA, New Delhi asked the officers  in J&K to hold periodic review meetings  and closely monitor the progress on these incomplete works.  As per the MIS, 11,28,530 job cards have been issued in the State, out of which just 88 % have been verified. It is necessary to verify all the job cards to bring transparency in the system.
The data provided by the State has revealed that 1885 traditional/ farm ponds  were identified for the  conservation and maintenance work but unfortunately hardly 68 have been completed.  The Centre issued the funds for the same but unfortunately, the department has failed to utilize the money sanctioned  and complete the works on the other ponds.
Farm ponds are considered to be the most important component for conservation of rain water, providing irrigation water to the nearby farms and raising water table in the area.  Just 4 % progress on the ponds is shocking and exposes the work culture in Rural Development Department in the State.
The communiqué from Union RDD Ministry also pointed out that Section 30, Schedule I  of the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, mandates the States to appoint an Ombudsman of each district for receiving grievances of  the public with regard to the works and their quality. The State has failed to fill up the vacancies and appointment Ombudsmen in all the 22 districts of the State. Unfortunately, the State is yet to formulate Grievance Redressal Rules  and set up a well devised mechanism for the same. It is amazing to note that 18 grievances pending in the J&K State,  await justice for the last several years.
It further observed that  State Employment Guarantee Council (SEGC) is the statutory body at the State to review the pragmatic issues related to MGNREGA implementation. SEGS is mandated to have bi-annual meetings, but they are not  being held  in time and even the Union Ministry is not being informed about the time of conduct of these meets and the decisions taken. State must share the minutes of the meetings with the Union Ministry, the communication maintained.

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