• NREGA fails to guarantee
• Administrative cost for NREGA hiked
• Gujarat spends 14 times more on NREGA administration
• Tribal residents get unemployment allowance

NREGA fails to guarantee

The guarantee factor seems to have been diluted in the implementation of NREGA.
At an average, the Act has provided 37.50 man days of work to a job-seeking household against the legal promise of 100 man days annually, according to a government assessment. If an average of Rs 50 is paid as wages per day, then a household has earned just Rs 1,880 in a year against the promised Rs 5,000. Till February 2007, 1.64 crore households were provided jobs but only 62 crore man
days of work had been generated as against the targeted 164 crore.

While the Act legally binds the state to provide 100 days of employment to every job-seeking household, there is little likelihood of the government being dragged to court by the people for non-fulfilment of this clause. Andhra Pradesh, where NREGA was launched in February 2006, has managed a meagre employment of 28.15 days per family. The state had initially drawn effusive praise for the large issuing of job cards and registration. However, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have maintained
a good track record. The former, with an effective government under the watchful eyes of civil society, has emerged as a model state, providing 73.68 man days of work for every household. Madhya Pradesh has provided 61.61 days of work per household. Assam has managed a good 66.19 days of work. These are exceptions, and NREGA has mainly registered a dismal performance from regions with high rate
of poverty and big potential for wage labour. Uttar Pradesh has managed to provide only 26.55 days of work per household, generating just 617 lakh man days of employment for 23.26 lakh households. Bihar could provide 33.51 days of work to
a poor household, but managed only 29.7 lakh man days for 8.86 lakh households.

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Administrative cost for NREGA hiked

The Union cabinet has approved enhancement of the administrative or management cost for the implementation of NREGA from the present level of 2 per cent to 4 per cent of the total cost. The hike will provide for additional manpower, infrastructure upgradation and skill development for the implementing agencies. It will also provide worksite facilities to workers. For the current year, the administrative cost is estimated to be Rs 502 crore.

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Gujarat spends 14 times more on NREGA administration

During the first public social audit of NREGA implementation held recently in Dahod and Panchmahals districts in Gujarat, registers and muster rolls were rarely made available, inspite of written instructions by district collectors. Contrary to the
official limit of 2 per cent expenditure on administration, the state is spending
28 per cent of the grants funds on administrative costs, which are officially called contingency costs. In the villages of Dahod and Panchmahals, the social audit
found a wide disparity in the job cards issued and work allotted. In the two
districts, 1,01,321 and 1,03,340 job cards were issued respectively. In comparison, work was allotted to just 3,955 families in Dahod and 8,135 families in Panchmahals.

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Tribal residents get unemployment allowance

Around 1,574 tribal residents from Barwani district in Madhya Pradesh have
received unemployment allowance worth Rs 4.75 lakh under the NREGA. Tribal residents demanded unemployment allowance after they did not get jobs for more than two months under the MP rural employment guarantee scheme. The administration initially refused to entertain their demands and conducted an
inquiry. Subsequently they found the demand valid and distributed the allowances.

 

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