(a) whether National Advisory Council (NAC) has made series of
recommendations on working of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS);
(b) if so, the details of each recommendation;
(c) the recommendations accepted by the Government so far; and
(d) the steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government for
the effective implementation of these recommendations?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT
(SHRI PRADEEP JAIN `ADITYA`)
(a): Yes sir.
(b) to (d): National Advisory Council (NAC) while examining policy reforms and
implementation of flagship programmes including Mahatma Gandhi National
Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), recommended certain measures
for effective implementation of MGNREGA. These included expeditious
notification of Social Audit Rules, strengthening institutional and technical
support in the Ministry and for Central Employment Council and providing
technical support to States through resource groups on wage payment,
transparency and accountability, grievance redressal, planning, natural resource
management, convergence, expansion of permissible works, demand for work,
capacity building, training, staff, management etc. The steps already taken by the
Government on the above aspects for effective implementation of MGNREGA
include the following:
(i) Permissible administrative expenditure limit was enhanced from 4% to 6%
for deployment of dedicated staff for MGNREGA, strengthening of
management and administrative support structures for social audit,
grievance redressal and ICT infrastructure.
(ii) States have been instructed to establish State Employment Guarantee
Funds for greater flexibility in management of funds for MGNREGA.
(iii) For convergence of MGNREGA with other development programmes of
the Government which have similar target groups, convergence guidelines
have been developed and disseminated by the Ministry for several other
development schemes.
(iv) Amendments to para 1 of Schedule I of MGNREG Act have been carried
out from time to time to enlarge the scope of works and activities that can
be taken up.
(v) Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based MIS has been
made operational to make data available to public scrutiny including job
cards, muster rolls, employment demanded and number of days worked,
shelf of works, funds available/spent, social audit findings, registering
grievances etc.
(vi) State Governments have been advised to make use of ICT enabled models
like Business Correspondent, Rural ATM, handheld devices, smart cards,
bio-metrics, mobile banking etc., for easy wage payments to MGNREGA
workers.
(vii) In consultation with the Comptroller & Auditor General of India,
MGNREGA Audit of Schemes Rules, 2011 has been notified on
30th June, 2011.
(viii) Instructions have been issued directing all States to appoint Ombudsman
at district level for grievance redressal.