On a day the lok Sabha took up the UPA Government’s historic Food Security Bill for vote, another of its flagship schemes, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), seems to be floundering miserably.
Updated records show that none of the States have provided the guaranteed 100-days’ wage employment in last three years. This, despite the demand to increase the number of job days under the rural job scheme.
While only 14.48 per cent of the total registered households got jobs in 2008-09, the figured dipped to 10.19 per cent in 2012-13. The Centre has blamed the poor job output on the States for their failure to utilise the funds doled out through the Union Rural Development Ministry.
What’s worse, the Government’s statistics reveal that in Goa, not a single person could get 100 days of employment. A total of 4,987 households were provided jobs against 5,015 households seeking employment in 2012-13.
The situation was not very encouraging even in populated States like UP, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Karnataka where the average was even less than the national average of 10.19 per cent. In these States, just two per cent to nine per cent of the total registered households could get 100 days of employment. In comparison, quite a few N-E States have fared better.
Tripura topped the list, though the performance was not very impressive, by providing 100 days’ jobs to 37 per cent households seeking employment followed by Kerala (22.30 per cent), Mizoram (19.52 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (16.35 per cent) and Nagaland (13.94 per cent).
A total of 5,12,69,634 rural households demanded employment of which 4,96,64,305 were provided jobs under the UPA’s flagship programme in 2012-13. But this could be misleading, as most of these households got only a few days of employment.
“We have examined it (issue of dismal job availability) and among other reasons one main reason is that the desired efficiency with which the projects should be made for creating job opportunities at the local level is not taking place,” said S Vijay Kumar, Secretary, Rural Development Ministry while deposing before a Parliamentary panel on the performance of the MNREGA.
He further stated that the “actual problem is that the States have given the money to the panchayats. While some panchayats have done work and spent the money, no replenishment is taking place. Moreover, many panchayats are not carrying out works and the money is lying unspent with them.”
That means funds are not being utilised efficiently at State or panchayat level, he said.
To ensure maximum households get 100-days’ employment, the Centre is working on a method under which each State has to set up an Employment Guarantee Fund as provided in the Act. Instead of disbursing all the money received from the Centre to panchayats, it should retain some part of the money with it and release it in the accounts of panchayats, said a senior official from the Rural Development Ministry.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the flagship rural development programme of the UPA Government, was launched in February 2006 in 200 districts. It was later expanded to another 130 districts in 2007-08 and eventually extended to cover all the 593 districts.
However, limited job availability apart, the ambitious programme is already mired in corruption and irregularities such as fudging of job cards and embezzlement of funds, which was also pointed out by a recent report by the CAG.