-The Hindu A lack of sufficient funds, rampant payment delays and abysmal wage rates are to blame The ?11,000 crore fraud that diamond merchant Nirav Modi is said to have created is a figure that needs to be put in perspective. The total amount of wages pending under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme for the whole country (2016-17) was around ?11,000 crore too. This sum is a...
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People as auditors -Nikhil Dey and Aruna Roy
-The Hindu Social audits ensure a citizen-centric mode of Accountability The breakdown of institutions has underlined the fact that democracy — and especially public funds — need eternal public vigilance. But in India, the elites close ranks to neutralise voices of dissent and alarm, thus preventing public vigilance. Democratic governance needs the citizen to be legally empowered to ask questions, file complaints, and be a part of the corrective process. Social audits, as...
More »Karnataka excels in social audit coverage of both districts & GPs under MGNREGA in 2017-18
One of the salient features of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (2005) is that there are provisions in it to ensure transparency and Accountability. Section 17(2) of the MGNREGA says that the gram sabha shall conduct regular social audits of all the projects under the scheme taken up within the gram panchayat (GP). In addition to that, Section 17(3) of the MGNREGA states that the GP shall make...
More »Improving social audits -Suchi Pande & Rakesh R Dubbudu
-The Hindu Telangana’s experience is instructive The institutionalisation of “social audits” to ensure implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been challenging. Since being included in the 2005 Act at the behest of social movements, social audits have been ineffective in most parts of the country due to government indifference. So far, 26 States have created social audit units (SAUs), but the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG’s) detailed guidelines...
More »UP Making Repeated Attempts to Quash HC Order Demanding Healthcare Overhaul -Anoo Bhuyan
-TheWire.in The state government has been seeking an ex parte injunction on Allahabad high court's wide-ranging judgment on its health system, but has not been granted one yet. New Delhi: For the last several weeks, the Uttar Pradesh government has been trying to file a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking an ex parte injunction on an Allahabad high court judgement prescribing a massive overhaul and audit of the state’s public health...
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