Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Feb 12: The Union Government has projected various shortcomings in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Jammu and Kashmir and criticized it for its failure in meeting the desired target.
While pointing out the shortcomings in its recent letter addressed to Khurshid A Shah Secretary, Department of Rural Development Government of J&K, Aparajita Sarangi, Joint Secretary MGNREGA, Ministry of RDD, Government of India has expressed displeasure over the State Government’s failure in attaining the targets as fixed by the Union Government in implementation of the Scheme.
In its letter dated February 3, the Ministry of Rural Development GoI has also expressed its serious concern over the slow pace of works under the scheme in the State of J&K. “The slow completion rate is a matter of concern and has figured in the Parliamentary Consultative Committee (PCC) meeting of MPs held recently”, the letter added.
It said that during the Financial year 2015-16 as the progress analyzed up to January 27 this year, the percentage of works completed is only 8 percent. The Centre urged the State Government to review the same to ascertain the reasons for the slow progress in completion of works.
Pointing out that 40914 works are spillover from Financial Year 2012-13 and earlier which too are incomplete, the Centre urged the State to ensure that all such works are completed on campaign mode.
Not being satisfied with the employment generation under the MGNREGA in J&K, the Union Government also urged the State Government to expedite the process in this regard and show desired results. It said the labour budget for financial year 2015-16 is 311.90 lakh person days. However, during the current financial year up to January 27 this year 116 lakh person days i .e 54 percent have been generated against the projection of 217 lakh PDs till January this year.
Showing serious concern over delay in payment of wages, the Centre has taken the State Government to task saying that during FY 2015-16 Rs 64 crore (73 percent of total transactions) were delayed for more than 15 days. Out of this, 24 percent of the payments were delayed for over 60 days. Terming it a serious issue the Centre has urged the State to analyze the reasons behind the delay in wages payment.
The Union Ministry of Rural Development has also found fault with creation of individual assets under the MGNREGA. It said in order to strengthen the livelihood resource base of the rural poor, it is desirable to put adequate emphasis on creation of more and more individual assets while making a reference to Category B para 4 (1) of Schedule 1 of the Act. Under this Act an analysis of the performance of the number of individual assets being created reveal that, out of the total works, 620 number of works which is only one percent of the total works have been taken up on individual land in FY 2015-16 which correspondent to one percent of the total expenditure. This indicates, that no headway has been made in taking up works under individual category, the letter further revealed.
The letter stated that under the scheme out of total 46,803 number of works (25 percent of total works) have been taken as public works relating to Natural Resource Management (NRM) category in FY 2015-16, correspondent to 25 percent of the total expenditure. It urged the State Government to scale up the works related to NRM in future as it will go a long way in fulfilling the objective of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY).
It also urged the State Government to ensure that MGNREGA funds are used for construction of Individual House Holding Latrines (IHHLs) in Indira Awas Yojna (IAY) houses/ State schemes houses/ other schemes and the funding under SBM (G) is not used to avoid duplication.
The letter also mentioned that on works related to agriculture the expenditure on 15 out of 18 districts is below the statutory limit of 60 percent of total expenditure. It urged the State Government to make efforts to ensure that more works in this category are taken up.
The State Government through the letter was also asked that implementation of the plan regarding creation of durable and sustainable assets under MGNREGA be reviewed.
The letter further urged the State Government to launch a drive to expedite Aadhar enrolment, seeding into the NREGA soft and verification by PO.
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