The Ministry of Rural Development has written to the States to remind them that they need to submit an action taken report showing compliance with the indicators prescribed by the Ministry for receiving funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MGNREGA). Is.
Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh said, “The compliance of the indicators brought in to ensure transparency and accountability in the use of MGNREGA funds will be assessed in October.”
The move could lead to a tussle between the Center and the states as many people are still not following the indicators.
Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee In July, the Center was accused of blocking MGNREGA funds. The Center had then said that the states need to follow the norms for releasing the funds. “I have written to the states that we have no paucity of funds, but they need to ensure transparency and that there should be no financial irregularities. We will see the action taken report in October and assess compliance,” the Union minister said.
The minister further said, “I have asked the states to bring more transparency in MGNREGA and for this we need to follow certain indicators like visits of commissioners, real time attendance, an active ombudsman, social audit, a national mobile surveillance. The system is linked to an app that ensures that employees arrive at the site and work is being geotagged and WhatsApp groups are being created. One of the WhatsApp groups should be of officials and the other of GPs – runners and winners and other public representatives. This group will contain the details of the job card. Everyone will know what is happening,” Giriraj Singh said.
Many states are lagging behind their targets in terms of social audit and real time attendance.
on-ground implementation
The letter dated August 5, 2022, sent by the ministry to states and union territories, lists five indicators to ensure transparency and accountability on the use of funds. However, despite reminders, many states have not acted on the directions and the ministry is likely to withdraw funds in case of non-compliance.
WhatsApp groups are one of the five indicators that measure effective work done at the grassroots level and deliver. This is for sharing the real-time attendance of public representatives like MPs, MLAs, Sarpanch and others and is expected to be created by the Panchayat Secretary at the Panchayat level. This can help the public representatives to keep an eye on the activities.
Southern states that have attempted to meet the criteria are Andhra (12,675 out of 13,114 gram panchayats have WhatsApp groups), Telangana (12,426 out of 12,771 gram panchayats have groups), Tamil Nadu (10,073 out of 12,525 gram panchayats have WhatsApp groups) ) and Karnataka (out of 6,017 panchayats, 4,679 are connected through WhatsApp).
However, while there are 59,168 gram panchayats in Uttar Pradesh, only 28,930 are on WhatsApp. Out of 3,340 gram panchayats in West Bengal, only 859 have WhatsApp groups. Only 86 out of 3,642 gram panchayats in Himachal Pradesh are on WhatsApp, while 290 out of 14,215 gram panchayats in Gujarat have met this indicator.
Union Territories are also lagging behind. There is no WhatsApp group for 77 gram panchayats in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 20 in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, 10 in Lakshadweep and 12 in Puducherry.
what is said in the letter
The letter states, “As you are aware, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, inter alia, mandates the Gram Sabha to conduct a social audit of all projects undertaken in the Gram Panchayat, To have an Ombudsman for each district. To inquire into complaints and pass awards as per the guidelines issued and funds placed at their disposal for the purpose of implementing the scheme to the District Program Coordinator and all the implementing agencies in the district. Made responsible for proper use and management. Look to bring in transparency and accountability.”
It listed five indicators that states were required to adhere to:
1. Social Audit: “Gram Panchayats need to appoint an independent director for Social Audit Unit, State to plan and conduct social audit for Gram Panchayats, timely recovery of recoverable financial misappropriation amount reported by audit . States need to ensure provision of adequate resource personnel in Social Audit Gram Sabhas (SAUs).”
2. Ombudsman: “As per the extant provision of the Act, if not done so far, the recruitment of Lokpal for all the districts of your State should be completed in a time bound manner.”
3. National Mobile Surveillance System (NMMS): “Real time attendance of workers at Mahatma Gandhi NREGA workplaces, as well as geotagged photographs will be uploaded on NREGA soft as per Government of India advisory.”
4. Area Officer Monitoring Visit App: “All authorized officers should undertake ongoing tours as per minimum target of visit i.e. 10 on-going worksite visits per month for State Headquarters Officers/DPC/ADPC and 15 by PO and so on by Technical Officer and other officers.”
5. WhatsApp Groups GP K.
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