MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SHRI SUDARSHAN BHAGAT)
(a) The gender-wise workers got employment and person days generated under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) during the last three years and the current year are at Annexure-I.
(b) To generate awareness about the provisions of the Act, all States have been advised to Organize ‘Rozgar Diwas’ periodically to capture latent demand under the programme and to disseminate awareness about the provisions of the Act. Apart from this, IEC campaigns are also being undertaken by the Government.
(c): The State/UT-wise details of central release and expenditure under MGNREGA during the last three years and the current year are at Annexure-II.
(d) & (e): The number of households provided employment under MGNREGA last two year and current year is given in Annexure-III. MGNREGA is a demand driven programme; and the demand for work itself is influenced by various factors such as rainfall pattern, availability of alternative and remunerative employment opportunities outside MGNREGA and prevailing unskilled wage rates.
(f): There are following provisions in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to monitor and check the misuse of funds:-
(1) Social Audit: Social audit of all expenditure and all the works executed is a statutory commitment under the Act. In order improve the Social Audits, a Special Project is being implemented under which, the Ministry is funding the deployment of social audit resource personnel upto District level. The project will be operational during 2014-17 and will ensure the social audit of MGNREGS works is conducted as per Audit of Schemes Rules, 2011.
(2) Grievance Redressal Mechanism: The Act provides for establishment of Ombudsman at district level for expeditions redressal of grievances on the implementation of MGNREGS in the States/UTs. The Ombudsman can take suo moto cognizance of irregularities in the Scheme.
(3) State Quality Monitor (SQM): MGREGA Operational Guidelines provide for deployment of retired Chief/Executive Engineers for quality inspection of works implemented under the Scheme.SQM can make use of random sampling or stratified sampling in selecting the sample for quality inspection.
(4) National Level Monitors (NLM): If a complaint is prime-facie substantiated by documentary evidence, third party institutional NLMs are deputed to enquire into the allegations & issues raised in the NLM report are resolved through State Governments.
(g) The major steps taken by the Government to improve the programme implementation under MGNREGA are as follows:
# An Intensive Participatory Planning Exercise (IPPE) has been launched in 95,000 Gram Panchayats in 2,500 most backward Blocks. This exercise has helped in identifying better quality assets.
# For improving convergence with the line departments, and thereby to improve the quality of assets, the State Convergence Plans have been formulated.
# The associated outcomes of each work are being recorded before taking up the work, and the same is being measured after completion of the work-thereby bringing in more focus on outcomes.
# The States/UTs have been asked to deploy State Quality Monitors to inspect the quality of assets created under the Scheme.
# States/UTs have been asked to strengthen Social audits of MGNREGS works in accordance with the provisions of the Audit of Schemes Rules 2011 issued in consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.In order to support the States to conduct the Social Audits as laid down under the Rules, it has been decided to provide technical assistance of Rs.147 crore under a special Project that will be in operation till 2017. Under this, the cost of engaging social audit resource persons at the State and District Levels will be reimbursed to the States/UTs.
# Ministry would conduct training of Technical Resource Persons from the States/UTs on different technical aspects of type of works which can be taken up under the scheme.
# With a view to avoid bogus attendance and to check instances of tempering and misuse of muster rolls, the e-Muster system has been introduced.
# For smooth fund flow, the electronic Fund Management System (e-FMS) has been introduced which would also reduce delays in payment of wages.
# All States have been requested to appoint Ombudsman at the district level for grievance redressal.
# The Ministry has established a comprehensive system of monitoring and review mechanism for MGNREGA, which, inter alia, include visits of Area Officers of the Ministry and National Level Monitors and Vigilance & Monitoring Committee meetings at the State/ District levels.
# To facilitate states to engage technical assistants/barefoot engineers for better technical planning and supervision of works under MGNREGA, guidelines have been issued to allow their establishment cost as a part of material cost of works instead of administrative cost.
# Mobile Monitoring Systems has been introduced in 35000 GPs to empower GPs and implementation agencies with live data from the worksites and allow an online and real-time updation of database for complete transparency.
Download PDF Files
