Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Nov 15: Expressing its dissatisfaction and concern over the performance of Jammu and Kashmir under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the Government of India has pointed out several deficiencies in proper implementation of the programme by the State.
According to an official communiqué in this regard, written by Union Ministry of Rural Development to the Department of Rural Development, Government of Jammu and Kashmir; slow progress in completion of works, low pace of person days generation, delay in wage payment, expenditure less than statutory limit on agriculture related works and little work on creation of Individual Assets, Natural Resource Management etc are among the deficiencies in implementation of MGNREGA in J&K State.
“The percentage of works in J&K, completed during the Financial Year 2015-16 as on October 25, 2015, is only 2 percent while 49476 works, spillover from 2012-13 and earlier, are also incomplete,” points out the Government of India in its communiqué, D.O No J-11018/01/1/2015-MGNREGA (IV), dated 29-10-2015.
The communiqué, written by Joint Secretary MGNREGA, Aparajita Sarangi, is based on the performance analysis of J&K State in implementation of MGNREGA for the current financial year till October 28, 2015.
Expressing its serious concern over the slow completion rate, which also figured in the Parliamentary Consultative Committee Meeting- held recently, the Union Ministry has asked the State Government to hold a review for arriving at the reasons for the same and ensure that such works are completed on campaign mode.
Further, the performance analysis points out that only 19 percent person days have been generated in first seven months of the current year. Up to 28-10-2015, only 20.88 lakh person days have been generated against the projection of 113.68 lakhs till October 2015, the official letter explains and asks the State to expedite the pace of person days generation. The agreed to labour budget (person days) of J&K for the year 2015-16 is 311.9 lakh.
Maintaining that timely payment of wages is critical to the success of the programme, the performance analysis shows that during the current financial year, 69 percent of total transactions were delayed for more than 15 days. Out of this, 44 percent of the payments were delayed for more than 60 days.
Stressing that efforts should be stepped up to ensure more works related to agriculture and allied sector, the GoI communiqué has pointed out that the expenditure on such works during the year 2014-15 and 2015-16 till Oct 28 of this year was below the statutory limits of 60 percent of total spending.
Similarly, the Government of India in its communiqué, has also stressed the need to scale up the works related to Natural Resource Management, Individual Household Latrines and creation of Individual Assets in order to fulfill the objective of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchaye Yojana (PMKSY), Swachh Bharat Mission and strengthening livelihood resource base of rural poor, respectively.
Further, the State Government has also been asked to strengthen coordination and convergence with various line departments for better results and review the implementation of State Convergence Plan.
For the proper capturing of work demand and mitigation of public grievances, the Union Ministry has suggested the State Government to organize Rozgar Diwas at least once in a month at Gram Panchayat level.
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