Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 23: Jammu and Kashmir Government has once again performed poorly in the implementation of seven major components of the Union Government’s flagship scheme—Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) thereby exposing the non-serious approach of those at the helm of affairs in the Rural Development Department.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that there are eight major components of MGNREGA but the report card prepared by the Union Ministry of Rural Development clearly indicates that Jammu and Kashmir has failed to come up to the expectations in seven important components.
These components include preparation of Convergence and Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Plans, participation of 60% women in the scheme and taking up of agriculture related works.
The Union Ministry is laying lot of emphasis on creation of durable and sustainable assets and in this regard it had issued directions for the convergence of MGNREGA with different schemes. “The inter-departmental convergence is imperative to holistically address multiple dimension of poverty in a sustainable manner”, sources said.
However, J&K has failed to frame convergence plan for the current financial year till date despite the fact that workshop for the same was held some months back, sources said. Similar is the fate of Information, Education and Communication Plan despite the fact that the same is of immense importance.
Drawing the attention towards provisions under Schedule-1 of MGNREGA, they said that under this Schedule it is required to ensure that 60% of the works to be taken up in a district in terms of cost shall be for creation of productive assets directly linked to agriculture and allied activities, adding the objective behind this provision was to improve productivity of agriculture and allied activities.
However, the Ministry has observed that expenditure on agriculture and allied works taken up during the current financial year is at 48% as against mandatory 60%, sources said.
Similar is the fate of third major component, which states that priority shall be given to women workers in such a way that at least one-third of the beneficiaries are women, who have registered and requested for the work. “This stipulation is not being followed seriously in Jammu and Kashmir as a result of which participation of women is only 20%”, sources said.
The MGNREGA Rules mandate the States to pay the daily allowance to a registered worker if he or she is not provided a job within 15 days of the receipt of job application and for this States are required to frame Unemployment Allowance Rules.
“But, Jammu and Kashmir Government is not taking this aspect seriously, which is evident from the fact that it has not yet notified the Rules”, sources said, adding “the non-serious approach in this regard is notwithstanding the fact that Union Ministry as well as Comptroller and Auditor General of India have expressed serious concern over non compliance of this important provision of the scheme”.
According to the Rules, Labour Budget component is projected before the Union Ministry in anticipation of demand of unskilled manual work during the financial year but mandays generation against the projected Labour Budget is below 60% in Jammu and Kashmir with figures at 17% only.
In order to ensure transparency in the utilization of funds, the Union Ministry is laying thrust on electronic-Fund Management System (e-FMS). Shockingly, Jammu and Kashmir has yet not started e-FMS system for obvious reasons.
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