Ever since its inception in 2006, the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act, now renamed
after the father of the nation as the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA has made deep
inroads in the lives of millions of rural poor. Launched with the objective to provide
every rural household a guarantee of at least 100 days of employment during a
financial year by providing unskilled manual work in rural areas to those
members of the rural household who volunteer to do such work the scheme has helped
in increasing the productivity, generating livelihood opportunities and
creating durable assets in the rural areas. The Ministry of
Rural development & Panchayati Raj has undertaken several measures to streamline the
implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act. These include -
1.Entitlement of Rs.
100 as wages under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA : In pursuance of the announcement made by the Finance
minister in his Budget Speech for 2009-10
to pay a real wage of Rs.100 per day under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, the
following policy has been decided by the Government-
· Wage rate would be revised under
Section 6(1) of NREG act subject to a ceiling of Rs.
100. In respect of States with higher wages, amount exceeding
Rs. 100 would be paid by the State Governments from
their own resources.
· For all other States wages notified
on 1.1.2009 will be the same.
The new wage rates
will be effective from 1.4.2009 or from the date of actual disbursement which
ever is later.
·
A
separate index for Mahatma Gandhi NREGA wages would be created.
2.Wage disbursement to Mahatma Gandhi NREGA workers through
Banks/Post Office accounts has been made mandatory to ensure proper
disbursement of wages to NREGA workers. Over 8 crore
bank/post office accounts have been opened so far.
3. District Level Ombudsman
:Guidelines have been issued to states for
Ombudsman at the district level. The Ombudsman would be appointed by the State
Government on the recommendation of the selection committee. Ombudsmen will be
well-known persons from civil society who have experience in the field of
public administration, law, academics, social work or management. It will receive
complaints from Mahatma Gandhi NREGA workers and others on any matters, consider
such complaints and facilitate their disposal in accordance with law.
4.Social Audits:
Gram Panchayats
have been asked to organize Social Audits once in every six months.In
accordance with the President’s Address, Ministry issued notice to all the States
for conducting the Social Audit in campaign mode, from June 2009 to September,
2009.
a)
By the end of December, 2009, the status of
Social Audits conducted in the country is:
|
Total
number of Districts
|
Number
of Districts covered
|
%
of Districts covered
|
Total
number of Gram Panchayats
|
Number
of Panchayats
covered
|
% of
Gram Panchayats covered
|
Number of Social Audits conducted
|
|
619
|
568
|
92
|
249366
|
188211
|
76
|
218624
|
b) National Level Monitors (NLMs)Visit: 32 National
level Monitor were deputed in different states for special monitoring of the
social audit campaign initiated by the Ministry.
5.On line
Monitoring : The
monitoring of Social Audit is online through the website 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.
6.Eminent Citizen Monitors :Guidelines of the Scheme for
independent monitoring by Eminent
citizens have been issued to states. A group of 100 Eminent Citizen Monitors
would be identified to Report on the progress of the scheme.
7.Vigilance and Monitoring committees at State and District level :Vigilance & Monitoring
Committees (V&MCs) have been re constituted in
all States/UTs at State as well as District level for
effective monitoring of the implementation of the programs including Mahatma
Gandhi NREGA.
8. National Helpline for receipt of complaints
:
The
Ministry has a Toll free National Helpline 1800110707 to enable the submission
of complaints and queries to the Ministry for the protection of workers
entitlements and rights under the Act. This is being CT enabled and linked with
the State and District Level Helplines.
9.Partnership
with Unique Identification Development Authority of India (UIDA):
Mahatma
Gandhi NREGA will be collaborating with UIDA. By creating a unique identity of
the individual the process would eliminate duplicate job cards, ghost
beneficiaries while facilitating easy bank account opening,tracking the mobility of beneficiaries and ensuring a better monitoring of the
system.
10.Enlarge
the scope of works permitted
·
Schedule
I, paragraph 1, sub para (iv) of National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act 2005, has been amended on 22nd July, 2009,
to include:“provision of irrigation facility, horticulture
plantation and land development facilities to land owned by households
belonging to the Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes or below poverty line
families or to beneficiaries of land reforms or to the beneficiaries under the Indira Awas Yojana
of Government of India or that of the small farmers or marginal farmers as
defined in the Agriculture Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme, 2008.”
·
Gram
Panchayats while approving work plans have been asked
under the Act, to ensure that works on lands of SC / ST
and BPL receive first priority. Small & Marginal Farmers account for 80%
of all land holdings and operate about 40% of all cultivated land. Permitting
private works on lands of small & marginal farmers implies coverage of 40%
of all cultivated area. Of the 142 million hectares of land under cultivation
about 57 million hectares will come under ambit of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA works.
·
Under
the Schedule I, paragraph 1(g) of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005
the scope of work under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA has been expanded to
include the construction of Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendra (BNRGSK) at the Gram Panchayat
and Block level.
11.Work under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA in Naxal
affected states : Union
Government has issued instructions to all naxal
affected States (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa
and Uttar Pradesh)on 27th October, 2009 for implementation of Mahatma
Gandhi NREGA in a more meaningful way.
The States have been instructed to intensify awareness generation campaign
among rural households, issuance of job cards, implementing sufficient number
of works and timely payment of wages.
12.Convergence:The Ministry of Rural Development
has developed and disseminated Guidelines for convergence of the Mahatma Gandhi
NREGS with different Schemes and specific programs. 115 convergence pilot
districts in 23 state, independent organisations have
been instituted by the Ministry. The National Institute of Rural Development
(NIRD) is monitoring the convergence projects.
13.Business
Correspondent Model is being adopted in Rajasthan with the help of Central Bank of India to ensure
timely payment of wages to the
workers under the Mahatma
Gandhi NREGA.
Presently the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA is being
implemented in all 621 districts of the country. The Ministry proposes to spent
Rs. 39,100 crore during the
current year and out of this an amount of Rs.
18950 crore has been utilized upto
December, 2009. 160 crore persondays
employment has been generated. The act has resulted into major financial
inclusion wherein bank/post office account have been opened for the families
getting employment. Ministry has advised all the States to ensure payment of
wages fully through the accounts. Over 8 lakh
accounts in banks/post offices have been opened. A sizeable proportion of all
the benefits have gone to the weaker sections of the society.
It is expected that these measures will
ensure transparency and accountability in the process so that benefit of the
Government’s flagship program reaches out to the millions of rural poor across
the country and in the process making it an effective instrument of poverty
alleviation.
*****
AKT/ST/SAK