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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Serious flaws in implementation of MNREGA, says Aruna Roy by Seema Chishti

Serious flaws in implementation of MNREGA, says Aruna Roy by Seema Chishti

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published Published on Jul 23, 2010   modified Modified on Jul 23, 2010

Five years after the passage of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, now known as the MNREGA after Mahatma Gandhi, activists central to lobbying for it are seeing serious flaws in its implementation. Absence of a mechanism to deal with the flaws, they say, are defeating the purpose of the Act.

Aruna Roy, activist and member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, in both its avatars, told The Indian Express that the Centre is not only not doing its bit to make the Act more effective, but by not acting upon the provisions for auditing and correctives enshrined in the law, allowing the situation to drift.

Pointing out “serious lapses” in the functioning of the Act, reported by the six working groups set up by the Central Employment Guarantee Council that is meant to oversee the implementation of the biggest work and welfare programme in the world, Roy spoke of the redressal and regulatory mechanisms provided in law, which are being ignored by the Centre.  

She said the Centre, by refusing to ensure an effective penalty on those found to be not implementing the Act and not making the Operational Guidelines binding, is ensuring that those who violate the law go unpunished. “Guidelines provided the framework for corrective action, the sidelining of the only set of guiding principles made the MNREGA, to an extent, rudderless. Under the circumstances, this massive programme is operating in an undefined operational paradigm.”

Roy pointed out that apart from not having imposed a single penalty on anyone found violating the law in some way, the “absence of a grievance redressal network” and the changes made in the social audit laws recently are responsible for the absence of effective vigilance on the working of the Act.

The earlier social audit mechanism allowed those outside the Gram Sabha to be part of the evaluation of the programme. Changes in the rules in December 2008 made it mandatory for the Sarpanch to be the head of the auditing mechanism and no one other than the Panchayat to sit on the audit. This has resulted in the auditing being carried out by the persons implementing the Act.

Roy is a member of the Working group on Transparency and Accountability, a key working group which has submitted its report on July 15. The group suggested some basic changes in the way grievances can be recorded, to keep out red-tapism. There are suggestions about the use of the (now extensive) mobile phone network to register oral complaints as many beneficiaries are semi-literate or illiterate and also of instituting a helpline.


The Indian Express, 22 July, 2010, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/serious-flaws-in-implementation-of-mnrega-says-aruna-roy/650123/0
 

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