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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Audit on for rural job plan

Audit on for rural job plan

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published Published on Nov 5, 2011   modified Modified on Nov 5, 2011

-The Telegraph

 

The comptroller and auditor general today began a performance audit of the rural job scheme in 12 states, including Bengal, amid allegations of widespread corruption hobbling India’s largest social sector programme.

The idea is to see whether the scheme has indeed secured villagers’ livelihood by providing guaranteed employment, and whether rules have been followed in its implementation.

For instance, at least 60 per cent of the expenditure on every project under the scheme has to be on wages, which means the spending on materials cannot exceed 40 per cent of the project cost. The CAG will examine whether this has been adhered to in all the states.

The CAG had carried out a similar performance audit in 2007 when the scheme covered just 200 districts. The current audit will look at the scheme’s performance in the past four years across the country’s 619 rural districts, starting with 12 states and covering the rest within a year.

“This audit is necessary to ensure accountability in public expenditure,” rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said.

The budget allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is Rs 40,000 crore a year.

Apart from Bengal, the 11 states being covered in the first round of the audit are Orissa, Jharkhand, Assam, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

“These states were selected for the first phase because the spending under (the scheme) has been very high in these states,” Ramesh said.

He added that the CAG would also audit other rural development and drinking water schemes.

Under the job scheme, each rural household can claim 100 days’ paid work a year, offering unskilled manual labour. Families can register themselves with the gram panchayat, obtain a job card and apply for work under the scheme.

A gram panchayat has to provide work within 15 days of receiving the application, else the applicant is entitled to unemployment allowance.

The wages are to be paid every week and not later than a fortnight of the work being completed. Delayed payment entitles the worker to compensation. The state governments are responsible for ensuring jobs and timely wage payment.

Last week, Ramesh had written to chief minister Mayawati citing irregularities in the scheme’s implementation in Uttar Pradesh, triggering a war of words. Allegations of funds misuse have come from Orissa too. In Jharkhand, a Right to Information activist was recently killed for trying to expose similar corruption.

The Telegraph, 5 November, 2011, http://telegraphindia.com/1111105/jsp/nation/story_14711520.jsp


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