The MGNREG scheme has multiple objectives for the benefit of the rural poor. Now, the Government of India and the State Governments are providing funds to provide 200 days of work in a calendar year to the rural poor for their sustenance.
Of late, the Central Government has widened the scope of NREGS operation by including massive plantation in rural areas to uplift the economic status of the rural poor and remove the crisis of depletion of forest cover and tackle climatic change hazards.
The scheme gives much importance for carrying out agro forestry and tackle air, water and sound pollutions in industrial and mining areas. So the fund is allotted for carrying out nursery practices for raising utilisable seedlings and their free distribution among the rural people to boost plantation drive across the State. Private holdings and private agro fields will go green by this way.
In every forest division, central nurseries are created from the funds of NREG scheme. However, as sources revealed, the whole idea of the programme is sabotaged in the field by certain unscrupulous employees. The cost for raising a seeding comes to nearly Rs 8-Rs 9, but it is quite unfortunate that hardly 10 per cent of seedlings are distributed and others remain without being disposed of. False records are created to show that the remaining 90 per cent of seedlings have been disposed of. It is becoming a usual practice of unscrupulous employees to fatten their pocket and sabotage of the greening India mission.
Every forest division of the State spends Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 3 crore for carrying out close canopy plantations under different schemes. There are selected vendors whose names are entered online and usually they supply own raised seedlings to local forest department for carrying out target plantations of the year under different schemes.
But instead of raising seedlings in nurseries, they are purchased from venders, who usually are near and dear of the forest authorities. By this way the cost of seedlings goes high while the very purpose of NREGS of employing poor people in manual work also gets foiled. The matter needs investigation for the interest of general public and especially for the people of rural Odisha for whom such huge sums of money are earmarked to provide them daily bread.
When the whole world is clamoring for climate change hazards and poverty, unscrupulous employees are foiling every effort by the Indian Government to tackle them if the massive corruption in the plantation drive is any indication. It is a fact that unless the corrupt people are completely rooted out, the Make in India programme cannot succeed. Besides irregularities in wage components, there is also bungling in material components like chemical fertilizer, bio fertilizers, insecticides, polythine bags etc required for plantation. When such material components are purchased by the higher officials, false vouchers are made or original vouchers are changed in the cash books. This allegation has surfaced in western Odisha region. Even the expenditures of camp officials and other VIPs are borne out of MGNRG funds. The employment guarantee of rural poor is now replaced by a guarantee for massive corruption.
As per an estimate, more than 60 to 65 per cent of NREGS fund is misappropriated and just 35 to 40 per cent of cash components are left for field work. The field work obviously cannot be perfect as Government servants are insincere and the higher authorities certainly lose the moral ground to ask the subordinate staff to work honestly.
Before, NREGS, a plethora of other schemes like Food for Work were implemented to provide economic support to the rural poor but they too failed to hit the target due to same corruption in execution of the schemes. The writer was in the administration and has knowledge of how the Food for Work scheme was carried out. Now the NREG scheme is becoming the substitute of Food for Work. So far the State Government has not estimated by what per cent the Food for Work was successful. So, much needs to be done to fight corruption than leaving the fate of rural poor to the whims of unscrupulous Government employees. Western Odisha is quite suitable for farm forestry and agro- forestry operation. Nearly 70 per cent land are not irrigated or partly irrigated. Most of the land are uplands and depend in rain-fed irrigation. The percentage of poor is much more than the costal districts. The marginal tenants and average tenants should be motivated to take up agro forestry and farm forestry with upland grown food crops for sustenance of their families. Similarly fruit bearing trees like mango, jackfruit, lemon, guava, Jamun, Sapota, lichu, Bel, Aou, etc can be raised to provide economic benefit to the rural poor.
The western Odisha was once treated as summer capital of Odisha and more than 60 per cent of area was full of woods with high density canopy cover, but at present less than 20 per cent forests are seen. The compensatory afforestation works in tribal and mining land should be taken up at war footing.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist. Tel no 9937460649)