MINISTER OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT(DR. C. P. JOSHI)
(a) to (d): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
Statement as referred to in reply to parts (a) to (d) of Lok Sabha starred Question
No. 44 for answer on 23.11.09.
(a)&(b): Yes, Sir. During the last three years and the current year so far, a total
of 1010 complaints relating to irregularities in the implementation of NREGA have
been received in the Ministry of Rural Development. The State wise details are given
in the Annexure.
The complaints mainly relate to delayed payment of wages, instances of use of
funds for non-permissible activities, incorrect accounting of expenditure, use of
machinery, non-issuance of job cards and ineligible persons being provided employment
under the Act.All complaints received in the Ministry are referred to the
concerned State Government for taking appropriate action in accordance with the
provisions of the Act. For investigation into complaints of serious nature, National
Level Monitors(NLMs) are deputed by the Ministry to the concerned district/State and
their reports are sent to the concerned State Government for taking corrective
measures.
The corrective measures taken by the Ministry to minimize the occurrence of such
cases are as under:
(i) Orders dated 7.9.2009 have been issued directing all State Governments for
setting up of the office of Ombudsman at district level for redressal of grievances
in a time bound manner.
(ii) A Web enabled Management Information System (MIS) (www.nrega.nic.in) has
been made operational which places all critical parameters such as job cards,
muster rolls, wage payments, number of days of employment provided and works
under execution online for monitoring and easy public access for information.
More than 8.4 crore job cards and 2.4 crore muster rolls have been up loaded on
the web site.
(iii) Wage disbursement to NREGA workers through Banks/Post Office accounts has
been made mandatory to ensure proper disbursement of wages to NREGA
workers. 8.13 crore bank/post office accounts have been opened so far.
(iv) The Ministry has accorded utmost importance to the organization of Social
Audits by the Gram Panchayats and issued instructions to the States to make
necessary arrangements for the purpose. Modifications have been made in para 13 of
Schedule-I of the Act to provide for procedures on conducting social audits.The
Ministry has issued instructions to the State Governments for enforcement of the
new social audit provisions under NREGA
(v) Independent Monitoring by eminent citizens has been approved.
(vi) District level Vigilance and Monitoring Committees have been set up for
monitoring of rural development programmes including NREGA.
(c)&(d): Yes, Sir. With a view to providing a foolproof mechanism to monitor the use
of funds under NREGA, the following steps have been taken by the Ministry:
(i) A web enabled MIS has been operationalised which tracks the funds released by
the Centre to the States/districts up to the various implementing agency level.
(ii) The States/districts are required to submit Audit Reports & Utilisation
Certificates for the previous year, bank reconciliation statement, implementing
agency-wise expenditure statement for each block and fund non-diversion certificate
while submitting their proposal to the Centre for release of funds.
