TAG: GS 2: SOCIAL JUSTICE
THE CONTEXT: Out of the 34 States and union territories only six have completed social audit of works done under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in more than 50% of gram panchayats.
EXPLANATION
- Kerala is the only State to cover 100%-gram panchayats.
- High rate of corruption is one of the primary complaints against the scheme and social audit is the inbuilt anti-corruption mechanism in the Act.
- These statistics are sourced from the Management Information System (MIS) on Social Audit maintained by the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) as on November 10.
- Section 17 of the MGNREGA says the Gram Sabha “shall monitor the execution of works”.
- Each State has social audit units which are supposed to work independent of the implementing authorities.
- The auditing standards laid down by the Comptroller and Auditor General were issued only on December 19, 2016.
- According to them, every Social Audit Unit is entitled to funds equivalent to 0.5% of the MGNREGA expenditure incurred by the State in the previous year.
- The audit involves quality checks of infrastructure created under the MGNREGA, financial misappropriation in wages, and checking for any procedural deviations.
UNIFORM PROBLEM
- The problem is uniform irrespective of the party in power across the country.
- The Centre has, multiple times, reminded the States that if the social audits are not conducted regularly, then the funds under the MGNREGS will be withheld.
- The States complain that the audit is delayed because the Centre does not release the funds for the social audit units, which work independent of the State governments, in time.
- There are recurrent complaints of delayed salaries for the village-level auditors.
States:
- Other than Kerala the only States to cross the 50% mark are Bihar (64.4%), Gujarat (58.8%), Jammu and Kashmir (64.1%), Odisha (60.42%) and Uttar Pradesh (54.97%).
- Only three States have covered 40% or more villages.
- Telangana (40.5%), Himachal Pradesh (45.32%) and Andhra Pradesh (49.7%).
- Other than Telangana, among the poll-bound States, the numbers are really low, Madhya Pradesh (1.73%), Mizoram (17.5%) Chhattisgarh (25.06%), and Rajasthan (34.74%).
- Kerala’s Rural Development Minister said theirs was the only State that also holds periodic Social Audit Public Hearings (Janakeeya Sabhas) at the panchayat level to subject the audit reports to close public scrutiny.
- In the other States, such public scrutiny is done only at the block level.
MEASURES
- According to the Kerala’s Rural Development Minister, they have taken a host of measures to make their social auditing mechanism robust.
- Including holding periodic panchayat-level public hearings where all stakeholders participate.
- Kerala has a healthy culture of people’s participation in governance.
THE MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)
- The Government of India passed the MGNREGA, September in 2005.
- The Act gives legal guarantee of a 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to adult members of a rural household who demand employment and are willing to do unskilled manual work.
- The Act will be applicable to areas notified by the Central Government.
Launching of Scheme:
- MGNREGS was launched by Govt. of India in all Gram Panchayats of districts Mahendergarh and Sirsa on 2nd February 2006 and this scheme was also extended in two more districts namely Ambala & Mewat on 1st April 2007.
- The remaining districts of the State have been covered under the scheme in April 2008.
Objective:
- The objective of the Act is to enhance the livelihood security of the people in the rural areas by generating wage employment through works that develop the infrastructure base of that area.
Cost Sharing:
- Financial assistance shall be provided by Central and State Governments in the ratio of 90:10 respectively.
Source: MGNREGS audit crosses 50% local bodies in just six States – The Hindu
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