No special drive conducted in 5 yrs to provide assured employment to PwDs under MGNREGA: CAG

None got 100 days’ work during 2019 to 2024 period

Bivek Mathur

JAMMU, Oct 1: No special drive was conducted in Jammu and Kashmir during 2019-20 to 2023-24 to identify Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) and other vulnerable persons to provide them the guaranteed employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), according to an audit report of the Comptroller and Audit General (CAG) of India tabled in the Assembly yesterday.

The report said paragraph 9.3.9 of the Operational Guidelines of MGNREGA, 2013 provides for a special drive to identify all persons with disabilities and other vulnerable persons and provide 100 days of work to each household they belong to in all villages within a specified timeframe.

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The guidelines also require the Coordinator (Vulnerable Groups) to hold monthly meetings with Block and Gram Panchayat-level officials to review implementation and submit monthly and quarterly progress reports to the District Programme Coordinator (DPC).

However, the CAG's audit examination found that no such special drive was initiated by the Rural Development Department in J&K during the five-year period from 2019-20 to 2023-24.

The audit further found that employment was provided to only 30 to 35 per cent of the already registered differently abled persons during the period.

"None of the differently abled persons was provided 100 days of employment during these five years," the report said.

The audit also pointed out that data relating to differently abled persons who had demanded work was neither reflected in NREGAsoft nor supported by any physical record maintained at the UT level. NREGAsoft is a web-based management information system developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Rural Development to facilitate implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).

As a result, the percentage of differently abled persons who had actually demanded work could not be ascertained, the CAG report said.

In the five sampled districts, that employment provided to registered differently abled persons ranged between 17 and 36 per cent during 2019-20 to 2023-24, it said.

The shortcomings were also found at the block and Gram Panchayat levels.

In eight of the 10 sampled blocks, employment was provided to between zero and 42 per cent of the registered differently abled persons, the report further said.

"No physical record of differently abled persons demanding work was maintained in the 10 sampled blocks and 40 sampled Gram Panchayats covered by the audit," it said.

The audit also found that the mandatory demand register to track work demanded and offered was not maintained in any of the 40 sampled Gram Panchayats.

Further, monthly meetings of the Coordinator (Vulnerable Groups) to review the progress of identified disabled and other vulnerable persons were not held in any of the 10 sampled blocks or 40 sampled Gram Panchayats.

The audit said the guaranteed 100 days of work was not provided to any differently abled person in the sampled blocks and Gram Panchayats.

The report also highlighted year-wise figures of differently abled persons who received employment under the scheme.

The number stood at 12,879 (2%) in 2019-20, 22,700 (3%) in 2020-21, 23,626 (3%) in 2021-22, 9,940 (1%) in 2022-23 and 8,367 (1%) in 2023-24.

The CAG report said in its response in January and August 2025, the Rural Development Department acknowledged the audit observation and stated that the issue of non-availability of demand data for differently abled persons in the Management Information System (MIS) would be brought to the attention of the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India.

The department said MoRD was the primary stakeholder responsible for developing the MIS to ensure better tracking of both demand for work and employment provided to differently abled persons under MGNREGA, the report said.