In the face of a relentless season of scams and the rising disillusionment, the UPA government is now in a desperate damage control mode. Its best bet would be to plug the loopholes in areas where it has managed to achieve marginal success.
Five years since the launch of its flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the government has now proposed to create a biometric data base of all workers covered under the MNREGA scheme and use it to authenticate work applications, work-site attendance and wage payments.
Maintaining that MNREGA had generated 880 crore person days of work since its inception, the Dr. Singh added that, “About 52 per cent of the work has been done by those belonging to the Scheduled Cases and Scheduled Tribes and 47 per cent by women.” He also noted that wages under MNREGA were now being disbursed through more than 10 crore (100 million) bank and post office accounts.
However, the challenge before the government is to improve the on ground implementation of the Act. “We have to improve the delivery mechanism of the programme so that the Right to Employment created under the Act becomes an effective right available to all eligible persons. Modern technology can be a potent weapon in preventing leakages and improving transparency,” Singh said.
Singh said wages have increased from Rs 65 per person per day in 2006 to around Rs 100 per person per day today. “Wage rates for MNREGA workers have recently been linked to increases in Consumer Price Index for agricultural labourers, resulting in an immediate 17 per cent to 30 per cent increase of wage rates. The average person days of employment per household under MNREGA in the last financial year was 54 days,” Singh added.
“The real success of MNREGA will be achieved when it is able to address the circumstances that made the programme necessary in the first place,” Singh said.
Click on the following video to see a demo of how the new technology in MNREGA will work.
 |
| Image courtesy: nregs-mp.org |
“We hope it will substantially reduce instances of discrimination in work allocation, delayed payments and bogus muster rolls,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at a function organised to acknowledge the five years of MNREGA. He also expressed concern over problems in implementation of the scheme in Naxal-affected areas. “Priority is being given to Left-wing extremism affected districts, and districts where the annual MNREGA expenditure is above Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion),” he said.
Concerned about the reports of harassment and intimidation of social auditors, the PM said, “Comprehensive rules to strengthen the social audit process by the gram sabha are being formulated.” He also announced that the government will establish a technical unit, comprising a panchayat development officer and a junior engineer, in each gram panchayat.
Maintaining that MNREGA had generated 880 crore person days of work since its inception, the Dr. Singh added that, “About 52 per cent of the work has been done by those belonging to the Scheduled Cases and Scheduled Tribes and 47 per cent by women.” He also noted that wages under MNREGA were now being disbursed through more than 10 crore (100 million) bank and post office accounts.
However, the challenge before the government is to improve the on ground implementation of the Act. “We have to improve the delivery mechanism of the programme so that the Right to Employment created under the Act becomes an effective right available to all eligible persons. Modern technology can be a potent weapon in preventing leakages and improving transparency,” Singh said.
Singh said wages have increased from Rs 65 per person per day in 2006 to around Rs 100 per person per day today. “Wage rates for MNREGA workers have recently been linked to increases in Consumer Price Index for agricultural labourers, resulting in an immediate 17 per cent to 30 per cent increase of wage rates. The average person days of employment per household under MNREGA in the last financial year was 54 days,” Singh added. The government also plans to formulate micro-plans at the village level with people's participation to determine what work should be undertaken and where. “The people should be actively involved in the implementation, monitoring and social audit of the programme,” Singh said, adding that the role of Panchayati Raj could be enhanced for this.
“The real success of MNREGA will be achieved when it is able to address the circumstances that made the programme necessary in the first place,” Singh said.
Click on the following video to see a demo of how the new technology in MNREGA will work.
No comments:
Post a Comment