(a) the allocation of funds to the States and utilisation thereof by them under
the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) during the last three
years, States-wise and year-wise;
(b) the number of work-days generated under NREGS, during the above period,
year-wise and State-wise; and
(c) whether the Government has received complaints regarding the delay in
payments or non-payments of wages under the Scheme and the steps taken to
prevent such cases?
MINISTER OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT(DR. C. P. JOSHI)
(a)to (c): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
Statement as referred to in reply to parts (a) to (c) of Lok Sabha Starred
Question No. 152 for answer on 30.11.09
(a) & (b): NREGA is demand based. Therefore, no allocation of funds is made under
NREGA. Central Government releases funds to the States for implementation of the
Act based on the labour demand. Details of the funds released, their utilisation and
number of persondays of employment generated during 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-
09 is given in the Annexure.
(c): Yes, Sir. The Ministry has received complaints regarding delay in
wage payment/non-payment of wages under NREGA. To prevent the occurrence of such
instances, the following steps have been taken:
(i) 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.
(ii) Wage disbursement to NREGA workers through Banks/Post Office accounts
has been made mandatory to ensure proper disbursement of wages to NREGA
workers. So far 8.13 crore bank/post office accounts of NREGA workers have
been opened.
(iii) 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.
(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. During the
current year, Social audit has been completed in 73% of the Gram Panchayats.
(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.