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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Holes in Meghalaya job scheme

Holes in Meghalaya job scheme

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published Published on Mar 28, 2011   modified Modified on Mar 28, 2011
The annual report (2009-2010) of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which was tabled in the state Assembly on Friday, stated that individuals benefited from arecanut plantations in Meghalaya after availing the scheme.

“Most of the village employment councils have taken up arecanut plantation projects. However, there are rare cases of arecanut plantations on community land and are mostly carried out on individual lands,” said the social audit, contained in the report.

Various social audits were carried out to find anomalies related to the implementation of various projects under the NREGS.

The report said the employment councils needed to improve their village development plans and project selections. In many cases, project executions were incomplete.

“The employment councils and area development councils seemed to be concerned more about funds than completion of the projects,” the report said, adding that the blocks needed to scrutinise project proposals before sanctioning them.

According to the report, in 2008-09, in many cases, only wage components of projects were sanctioned without actually releasing the material components. “In this way, funds were not utilised productively. However, in 2009-10, there were not much discrepancies in this regard.”

Several NGOs have also reported that awareness levels of the villagers regarding the NREGS were low. “The area development and employment council office-bearers should educate their villagers by sharing knowledge and information they have acquired from training programmes,” the report said.

Another reason for poor awareness levels may be because of low participation of villagers and job-card holders in the programmes and meetings related to the scheme.

The report pointed out that record maintenance by the employment and area development councils were reported to be either poor or improper as maintenance of paperwork and accounts posed a challenge to the villagers.

“The council members also lack awareness and training regarding maintenance of record books and accounts and the role and functions of various committees under the scheme,” it said.

Many employment councils, which were supposed to ensure distribution of job cards, have complained about delay in receiving job cards from the government.

There were also reports of delay in release of money from the block development office to the beneficiaries who have completed their work.

The report criticised the role of NGO social auditors for not conducting physical verification of projects and not including them in their reports.

“In social audit reports, the NGOs need to include status of projects, making physical verification of the works undertaken with the scheme,” the report said.

The Telegraph, 28 March, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110328/jsp/northeast/story_13772785.jsp


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