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| JK Govt fails to achieve targets under MGNREGA | | |
Majid Ahmad
SRINAGAR, July 30: Despite tall claims by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Jammu and Kashmir State has failed to achieve the targets under the Government of India's flagship program Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
The under-achievements have triggered confrontation between the Union Ministry for Rural Development and State Government. In a letter to Omar Abdullah, Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh has questioned gaps between the projection and achievements made under MGNREGA. However, the State Government claims the statistics quoted by the Union Ministry were "not exact" and state's performance was the "best."
The letter (D No J-11018/1/ 2012 -MGNREGA-IV) written to Omar last month, Jairam mentions an analysis of Labour Budget (LB) projection and achievement in J&K indicates that the State has not been able to make a realistic month-wise LB estimate during FY 2012-13. It says as against a projected LB of 274.93 lakh person-days, only 97.02 lakh person-days (35.3 percent of employment) could be generated in the last quarter of 2012-13.
Similarly, the letter reads during 2012-13, as against a total projection of 504.13 lakh person-days, only 60.35 percent could be generated. "This gap between the projections and achievement of LB indicates that the processes namely identification and planning of works, consolidation of plans, preparation of appropriate shelf of projects, implementation of these projects through PRIs and their regular monitoring have not been fully adhered to," Jairam writes to Omar. "The substantial unmet demand is one of the critical program implementation issues prevalent in J&K."
The MGNREGA is a job guarantee scheme for rural Indians which was enacted by legislation on 25 August 2005. The scheme provides a legal guarantee for at least 100 days of paid employment in every financial year to adult members of any household willing to do unskilled manual work related to public work at the statutory minimum wage of Rs 120 per day in 2009 prices. If they fail to do so the Government has to pay the salary at their homes.
It was started in J&K in 2005-06. Till 2012-13, J&K got over Rs 2100 crore funding under the program which is a demand driven scheme.
The letter from Union Minister further informs Omar that funds were not a constraint under the program and release of Central share to the State depended largely on "realistic" LB and how quickly and efficiently the State was able to utilize the funds and establish an enriched demand management system.
However, Minister for Rural Development Ali Mohammad Sagar says they are satisfied with their achievements. "We are doing best in given circumstances and Jammu and Kashmir is one among a few states which have checks and balances in place to ensure proper execution of the scheme," he said. |
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