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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Mayawati's lack of ownership of MGNREGA have hindered its proper implementation: Report

Mayawati's lack of ownership of MGNREGA have hindered its proper implementation: Report

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published Published on Jan 29, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 29, 2012

-The Economic Times

The charges of embezzlement of funds for the rural employment scheme may be contributing to the political battle between the Congress and the BSP in Uttar Pradesh, but it appears that, in real terms, political wrangling does not have any significant effect on its implementation.

According to a study by the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, the UP government's lack of ownership of the programme, along with low literacy levels and lack of administrative capacity at the lower levels of bureaucracy have hindered proper implementation of the MNREGA.

The report, "MGNREGA Implementation: A Cross-State Comparison", compares the programme's implementation in Tamil Nadu (which is seen as implementing it successfully) and Uttar Pradesh (a state understood to be experiencing its implementation challenges).

UP chief minister Mayawati, according to the study, has "never been committed to the MGNREGA's implementation success". It appears that the rural employment guarantee scheme is implemented only to the level to which the state government can "minimise interference from the Centre". The alleged lack of interest has been attributed to the fact that the Mayawati government has several poverty alleviation schemes of its own.

"Although small relative to MGNREGA, these schemes are personally more important to her (Mayawati), as she has complete ownership over their implementation," the study states. This explanation gains credence in light of the campaign rhetoric over fund usage for the programme, and the Congress' stressing its authorship and ownership of the rural employment scheme.

Mayawati may have limited ownership of MGNREGA, but that did not prevent from utilising its provisions to buttress her position.

Following her election in 2007, Mayawati doubled the state's minimum wages from 58 to 100. This meant thatMGNREGA workers would get a higher wages as well and this was seen as an effort geared to sections, which constituted Mayawati's electoral constituency.

Interviews conducted in the course of the study suggest that despite recent accusations of funding irregularities by the state, the programme is not expected to be a salient factor in the voter choice. The factors that have had a greater role in affecting the programme's implementation are the low operational capacity in the administration.

The rural employment guarantee scheme places a great degree of administrative responsibility with local bureaucrats beginning at the level of the gram sabha or village assembly. Even though the MGNREGA in the state is largely supply-driven (it was conceived of as a demand-driven programme), responsibilities have been devolved to a great degree to the panchayats.

Basically, the burden of implementation is on the panchayats. This is where the problem lies as the panchayats are not equipped with sufficient resources, skills or experience to deliver effectively.

The low operational capacity makes it difficult to respond to issues such as apathy of administrators, leakages and corruption. Another problem is that there is a conflict of interest as people who grant work under the programme are more often than not the same as those who manage complaints.

This would mean MGNREGA workers seldom lodge complaints on the fear of being excluded from future employment opportunities.

The Economic Times, 28 January, 2012, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-01-28/news/30673799_1_mgnrega-implementation-mgnrega-workers-rural-employment


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