Sonia's criticism of NREGA in Bengal based on CAG reports

Times of India, April 29, 2009

NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi's criticism of the Left Front government in West Bengal for not properly implementing the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) thus depriving the poor of the centrally-sponsored guaranteed job opportunities is based on a fact-finding done by the government's official auditor Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

CAG had conducted investigations in all the states where the NREGA scheme was implemented, first in 2006-07 and again between February and March 2008, to ascertain if the states that were found lagging behind or where leakages had been reported had done a course correction.

In West Bengal, a verification by a CAG team in at least seven villages in 2006-07 had found that expenditure was incurred on at least 20 projects for non-existent works. Unfruitful expenditure in at least seven social forestry works was also reported during the probe.

During an election rally in Murshidabad district on Monday, Sonia had blasted the Left Front for its inability to provide job cards to hundreds of thousands of poor under NREGA.

However, it was not just the Left-ruled state that was found deficient in implementing the UPA government's ambitious rural job scheme. The CAG report found that despite no shortage of funds for NREGA scheme, except in Tripura, none of the test-checked villages across the country had taken up all the works proposed in their annual plan for 2006-07.

The average state-wise shortfall in works actually taken up vis-a-vis those contemplated in the annual plans ranged from 1% in West Bengal, 28% in Andhra Pradesh, 24% in Assam, 15% in Punjab to 24% in Tamil Nadu and 79% in Bihar. High percentages were reported in Maharashtra (97%), Karnataka (92%), Meghalaya (93%) and Himachal Pradesh (63%).

The states found lacking in implementation of the rural job scheme belonged to all shades -- NDA, UPA and Left Front. In Orissa, interviews of 142 households in 21 villages of Kalahandi and Bolangir, in the presence of district authorities, revealed that in 98 cases, the beneficiaries disputed their engagement, and in 117 cases, they stated receipt of wages of only Rs 3 lakh against Rs 5 lakh shown in the online job cards and Muster Rolls.

In Manipur, job cards were issued without identification. In Assam, there was no formal allotment of work. Works under NREGA were allocated verbally. In J&K, out of 495 work orders executed during 2006-07, 116 works costing Rs 112 lakh had not been approved by the panchayats and did not form part of the approved annual works plan.

In Tamil Nadu, no records of the works executed under NREGA were maintained in any of the sampled blocks studied. In Karnataka, undated applications for works were received, and the number of days of employment demanded by the workers was neither recorded nor available to justify the demand for work.

Subsequently, in order to assess the improvement in implementation of the scheme as a result of the CAG audit, a second investigation of records was conducted between February and March 2008, covering 24 villages in six states from within the original audit sample.

It had, however, listed good practices of West Bengal having made provision for outsourcing of maintenance of different registers in keeping track of the NREGA scheme, besides the state having developed a grievance redressal mechanism. Others like Rajasthan and Jharkhand adopted West Bengal's good practices.

Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh had subsequently issued necessary instructions for proper maintenance of all registers at each level. In Bihar, properly trained staff had been provided to ensure maintenance of records.

pradeep.thakur@timesgroup.com