Social audit of MGNREGA not done in 58% villages: Ministry

Vikas Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 21

The National Level Monitoring (NLM) team of the Ministry of Rural Development has said no social audit of Centrally sponsored scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) had been conducted in 45 per cent of the villages in J&K during 2012-13. The NLM report further claimed that during 2013-14, social audit had not been conducted in 58 per cent of the villages. The NLM team visited J&K to monitor rural development programmes for 2014-15. The team visited eight districts of the state, covering 78 villages and 23 blocks.To ensure public accountability in the implementation of projects, laws and policies, social audits have been given a central role under the Act. As per the team assessment, only in 50 per cent of the villages, the panchayat members were ‘fully aware’ of the social audit processes and procedures. The central team observed that for an effective social audit process it was imperative that the Panchayati Raj Institution members in the state were aware of the processes and procedures as provided in the Act.The report claimed that the assessment of process of ‘demand for work’ under the MGNREGA was becoming complex. “It has been noted that now in a majority of the cases, the panchayat functionaries fill up the demand registers or applications of demand for work and the documents are often produced to substantiate that work is taken up only on demand,” the report said.“The job card holders interviewed by NLMs also have reported that they apply for job but at the same time they mentioned that they can only apply when the funds are available for taking up work,” it added. The NLM report also claimed that the wages to the beneficiaries under the MGNREGA were mostly delayed in 21 per cent of the villages. It further said that in 5 per cent of the visited villages, delay in payment was due to delay in measurement of works. Workers are to be paid on a weekly basis, and in some case within a fortnight of the date on which the work was done. In the event of any delay in wage payment, workers are entitled to compensation as per the provisions of the Payment of Wages Act 1936.