| J&K least benefitted by MGNREGA, courtesy corrupt babus | | | Muhammad Mukaram
Srinagar, Mar 7: Blame it on the deep rooted corruption in its implementation, Jammu and Kashmir has availed the least benefit under the prestigious Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which has benefitted rural masses across the country.
The state government established SGEF in 2008 with an aim to ensure proper implementation of MGNREGA, a centrally sponsored scheme meant to provide manual work to rural people. Under the scheme, it is mandatory to provide 100-days of work within five-kilometers to the job seekers.
However, the official figures reveal that J&K has remained one of the poorest performers under the prestigious flagship programme despite receiving a huge funding from the Centre.
The figures reveal that by the end of year 2014, the state had provided work to only 27 percent job seekers while as 73 percent didn't benefit from the scheme.
The figures said that state has provided nearly 27 lakh job cards to the rural population under the Act in last three years. Ironically, out of them only 61 thousand people got the complete 100 days of employment, which the Act guarantees.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who presented the Union Budget for fiscal 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha, said that the government at the Centre is committed to ensuring employment through MGNREGA. "Our government is committed to supporting employment through MGNREGA. We will ensure that no one who is poor is let without employment," he said.
However, sources said the Centre has blocked funds for some districts of the state due to poor implementation of the scheme and complaints about the fund embezzlements. In 2013, figures reveal that around 9 lakh jobs cards were issued, 4,92191 were provided employment and only 32,541 competed 100 days of working. "The government should order a transparent probe where the money has gone as majority job seekers didn't avail any benefit from the scheme," official sources said. Earlier, the Centre slammed the state over poor implementation of the MGNREGA and found lapses in executing the scheme in J&K. "Despite receiving crores of rupees from the Centre under this scheme, only a small portion of the state population got benefit from it over the years," an official of Rural Development Department said. On Saturday Jaitley also announced that the government would allocate Rs 5,000 crores to the existing MGNREGA funds.
"We will focus on improving the quality and effectiveness of activities under MGNREGA. I have made an initial allocation of Rs 34,699 crores for this programme," he added.
The Centre government according to sources was also mulling to give a digital boost to the flagship programme to ensure its implementation through mobile monitoring system. |
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