MINISTER OF THE STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SHRI PRADEEP JAIN `ADITYA`)
(a) & (b): On the occasion of completion of six years of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA), `MGNREGA Sammelan` was
organized at Vigyan Bhawan New Delhi on February 2, 2012. The Sammelan was to reaffirm commitment of all stakeholders to MGNREGA`s goals.
(c) to (e): A Committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Dr. Mihir Shah, Member, Planning Commission for suggesting revisions
to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) Operational Guidelines. The committee has submitted its report.
The major recommendations made by the Committee are as below:
(i) To anchor implementation of MGNREGA, National and State Employment Guarantee Missions and Management Teams should
be put in place at National and State level.
(ii) A network of Capacity Building Institutions should be created at the national level within the National Management Team
(NMT) of the Department of Rural Development. On similar pattern, a Capacity Building Division should be set up at the State
and District level.
(iii) Labour Budget should be presented by the Gram Panchayat at a Gram Sabha meeting on 15th of August. The shelf of projects
should be adequate to meet demand for work for at least two years.
(iv) About 30 new works related with watershed, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, works in coastal areas and rural sanitation
have been recommended for inclusion in the list of permissible works.
(v) Cash wage payment should be allowed in those Blocks/GPs where the outreach of the Banks/Post Offices is highly inadequate.
(vi) MIS should generate the pay order (automatically) for payment of unemployment allowance to such wage seekers whose demand
for work is not met within 15 days.
(vii) A Social Audit Unit (Society or a Directorate independent of the implementing departments/agencies) should be constituted.
The C&AG of India, or any person appointed by C&AG, should have the right to conduct audit of the accounts of schemes at such
intervals as deemed fit.
(viii) Three tier vigilance mechanism should be set up at State, District and Local level to detect irregularities
in the implementation of the Act.
The provisions in MGNREGA are effected through Schemes to be formulated by States under Section 4(1) of the Act. The Schemes made
by the States are required to provide for the minimum features specified in Schedule I of the Act for which guidelines are issued
by the Central Government. The copy of the Committee`s Report has been forwarded to all States/UTs and has also been placed in public
domain for comments/suggestions. Based on the feed back from various Stakeholders including State Governments, changes and modifications
to the Schedule and guidelines are carried out from time to time and this is a continuous process.
(f): Does not arise in view of above.
