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| J&K fails to meet targets, spend funds, provide employment | | MNERGA goes haywire | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, July 24: Jammu and Kashmir has been unable to meet targets, spend funds and provide employment to rural youth under the much hyped Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) across the state.
If a report of the union rural development ministry is to be believed, the scheme is more on papers and less on ground in most parts of Jammu and Kashmir. It has maintained that J&K has not been able to spend funds allocated to it under the scheme. J&K has spent 47.81 percent of funds available with it.
It has provided employment to 78.80 percent of the total number of persons who sought employment under the scheme. Of these 78.80 percent, 6.67 percent are schedule caste and 21.61 percent schedule tribe. Scheme has also failed to impress rural women across J&K. 4.54 percent women workers were employed under the scheme.
Under the scheme, 5290 road connectivity works were taken up for execution, of which a meager 1707 works were completed i.e. around 33 percent works were completed leaving a huge 67 percent works unfinished. J&K also took up 2532 flood control and protection works but could complete only 970 works. 406 water conservation and water harvesting works were left unfinished of the total 1249 works taken up for execution.
The report, a copy of which is available with Early Times, alongside these glaring findings found out that government did not appoint full-time dedicated Programme Officers (POs) in several blocks and instead, appointed existing Block Development Offices (BDOs) as POs and gave them additional charge of the scheme
It also did not appoint technical assistants and gram rozgar sevaks. It failed to set up technical resource support group at state/ district level. State also did not conduct door-to-door survey to identify persons willing to register for employment. Wage material ratio of 60:40 was not maintained at the block level.
Administrative approval and technical sanction of works was not obtained in advance. In three blocks, (Poonch, Bhaderwah and Banihal) out of a total of 495 schemes executed during 2006-07, 116 schemes costing Rs. 111.79 lakhs had not been approved by the competent panchayats and did not form part of the approved annual works plan.
An expenditure of Rs. 90.69 lakh was incurred on these schemes during the year. 14 works costing Rs. 33.55 lakh were executed in three blocks (Bhaderwah Banihal and Poonch) without obtaining administrative approvals in advance. 18 works costing Rs. 43.80 lakh were under execution in three blocks (Bhaderwah, Banihal, Mendhar) without obtaining technical sanctions from the concerned authorities.
In 19 works costing Rs. 22.87 lakh in two blocks (Mendhar, Bhaderwah), wages of Rs. 4.99 lakh to 458 workers pertaining to 2006-07 were not paid. State government is yet to prescribe any procedure for payment of un-employment allowance nor has authorized any authority which would pay unemployment allowance.
In eight Panchayats of 2 blocks (Banihal, Bhaderwah), date of disbursement of wages was not recorded in any muster roll. Application registration register was not maintained, or was not properly maintained (i.e. it did not contain, at the very least, the names of the applicants, date of receipt of application/ request and date of issue of job card).
Job Card Register was not found properly maintained. Employment Register was not maintained, or did not indicate the details of employment demanded, employment allotted and employment actually taken up. Applications for employment did not have the job card registration number, date from which employment was required, and the number of days of employment required.
The figures of employment generation were reported either without maintaining the basic Panchayat wise data at Block level, or higher figures were reported at Block/District level. As against issue of only 4,630 job cards to house-holds in Bhaderwah block during 2006-07, 4,910 households were reported to government as demanding/provided employment during the year by D.P.C. Doda.
As against 3.43 lakh person days of employment reported by the POs to DPC Doda, 3.66 lakh person days were reported by DPC Doda to the state government. BDO did not submit utilization certificates for utilization of at least 60 per cent of funds at their disposal, while applying for the next installment.
IT needs to be mentioned here that implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is the flagship programme of the union government that directly touches lives of the poor and promotes inclusive growth. The Act came into force on February 2, 2006 and was implemented in a phased manner. In Phase I it was introduced in 200 of the most backward districts of the country. |
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