Union Ministry guidelines not being strictly adhered to
*Slackness creates hurdles in identifying improvement measures
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 31: In utter disregard to the repeated directives of the Union Ministry of Rural Development, a panel of bureaucrats is sitting over selection of Quality Monitors under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) during the past nine months despite being aware of the fact that establishment of such a mechanism is imperative to identify steps required to be taken for effective implementation of flagship scheme of the Union Government.
In the operational guidelines of MGNREGA, the Union Rural Development Ministry has laid stress on quality monitoring by empanelling the Quality Monitors. There shall be State Quality Monitoring Unit comprising of Quality Monitors for each district and a Nodal Officer of the rank of at least Superintending Engineer at the State level, the guidelines said.
“The Nodal Officer of the rank of at least Superintending Engineer to be designated as Director (Quality Monitoring) will coordinate with all State Quality Monitors and Nodal Officer should be independent of implementation machinery”, the guidelines further said, adding “as the State Quality Monitors are expected to have good experience and expertise, their services will be utilized not only for fact finding and work evaluation but also for providing professional advice to the agencies engaged in the implementation of MGNREGA”.
Further, the State Quality Monitors will inspect the works under MGNREGA by paying site visits and at the end of every three months prepare a consolidated report for the district and submit the same to the Government through Director (QM). This report should include measures to be taken to prevent recurrence of deviations in planning, designing, selection of work sites and execution of works and supervision thereof.
After Rural Development Department of J&K was reprimanded by the Union Rural Development Ministry a number of times, the General Administration Department vide Government Order No.1131 dated December 17, 2020 constituted a committee for making selections to the posts/positions of Quality Monitors under MGREGA.
Secretary to Government, Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj was made Chairperson of the committee while as Development Commissioner (Works), Chief Engineer, Designs, Inspections and Quality Control, Member Secretary MGNREGA, Director Finance in the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj and representative of Public Works (R&B) Department (now below the rank of Additional Secretary) were made members of the committee.
It was also mentioned in the order that the quorum for the meeting of the Selection Committee will be considered complete only if all the members of the committee are present.
However, during the past nine months the panel of bureaucrats has failed to complete the assigned task thereby exhibiting utter disregard to the repeated directives of the Union Rural Development Ministry, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “the slackness in this regard is notwithstanding the fact that intention of quality grading is to assess the quality of MGNREGA works as a whole and to identify measures needed to bring improvement”.
When contacted, an officer of the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, who is also dealing with MGNREGA, confirmed that Quality Monitors have not been appointed/engaged. He, however, admitted that independent Quality Monitoring Unit is required to be established for transparency in entire exercise relating to implementation of MGNREGA.
“I will have to check the guidelines”, he said when asked whether the Quality Monitors are required to be appointed/engaged at the district level, adding “even in the absence of independent Quality Monitors the department is leaving no stone unturned to inspect the quality of MGNREGA works”.
“The endeavour of the Quality Monitors should be to ensure that at least 5% of the works are inspected within one year of completion so as to assess asset quality and utility and maintenance aspects and at least 5% work are to be inspected while they are still in progress so as to assess process quality aspects”, the sources said, adding “by dilly-dallying on the appointment/engagement of Quality Monitors the Government is creating impediments in achieving the objectives behind the scheme”.
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