Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 14: Taking serious note of the non-compliance of the stipulations laid down under Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the Union Ministry of Rural Development has directed the Jammu and Kashmir Government to ensure strict compliance of the conditions before seeking release of 2nd Tranche of Central Share under the scheme for the current financial year. The Ministry has also sought Action Taken Report (ATR) on pending complaints and decisions besides status of appointment of ombudsman in all the districts.
In a communiqué addressed to the Commissioner/Secretary Rural Development Department of the J&K Government, Aparajita Sarangi, Joint Secretary (MGNREGA) in the Union Ministry of Rural Development has made it clear that release of next installment/2nd Tranche of Central Share under MGNREGA during 2013-14 would depend on the fulfillment of the conditions laid down while releasing first installment earlier this year.
“An amount of Rs 328.15 crore has been released to the Jammu and Kashmir State Employment Guarantee Fund towards meeting the cost for generating wage employment (191.01 lakh person-days) up to September 2013”, said the communiqué, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR, adding “this release was made subject to a few conditions as such the State should fulfill all such conditions before coming up for release of next installment”.
Stating that while submitting financial proposals to the Ministry the States don’t resort to a detailed examination of pre-requisites and relevant supporting documents required for release of Central funds under MGNREGA, the Joint Secretary said, “compliance of all the conditionalities as laid down under the scheme is imperative as non-adherence causes unwarranted and avoidable delays in the release of Central funds”.
“Based on the deficiencies generally noticed in the proposals examined in the Ministry, a comprehensive checklist on pre-requisites has already been appended to the MGNREGA Operational Guidelines-2013 in order to ease the process of examination of proposals at the State level and lessen the processing time at the Ministry”, the communiqué said.
Besides fulfillment of the conditions, the Ministry has also directed the State to furnish Action Taken Reports on pending complaints and decisions taken during the Labour Budget Meeting held early this year. As per the official letter of the Union Ministry, the State has also been asked to furnish information vis-à-vis appointment of ombudsman in all the districts and Action Taken Reports on the observations of National Level Monitor, 100% operationalization of Management Information System (MIS) and Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Performance Audit on implementation of MGNREGA.
In the Labour Budget Meeting held early this year, it was decided that State would roll out e-FMS and e-MRs in all the districts by the end of June 2012 and would complete feeding of Aadhar numbers of workers in MGNREGASoft in all the districts by June end, sources said. It was also decided that State would prepare a plan of action for strengthening Panchayats as per Chapter 18 of new MGNREGA Operational Guidelines and ensure a quality monitoring system for assets created under MGNREGA by appointing adequate number of State Quality Monitors by ending June to inspect MGNREGA assets.
About the other decisions, sources said that it was also decided that State would ensure social audits at regular interval by following the rules and procedure. The State has now been asked to furnish Action Taken Report on all these decisions.
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