Centre pulls up Gujarat government for poor NREGA audit

The Union government has slammed the state government for poor social auditing of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme.
In its order dated October 5, 2009, the Centre has expressed its dissatisfaction on the poor social auditing of the NREGA scheme in Patan and Navsari districts. In the order, the secretary, ministry of rural development has asked the state government to take various actions for strengthening the audit.

The ministry has also pinpointed several loopholes it have observed in the state government's implementation of the NREGA scheme, like poor training of rural employment workers, showcasing of work done under NREGA scheme with photographs taken of the work beforte and after it was taken up, high level of lack of awareness about NREGA scheme among workers, no implementation of guidelines given by the Centre for social auditing of NREGA, delay in workers' payments, lack of proper for infrastructure for public information, no announcement of scheme in the gram sabhas, lack of training for social audits etc.

The state government has published a government resolution (GR) and issued fresh instructions for effective social auditing of NREGA scheme in accordance to the Centre's new guidelines. The state government has also asked all the authorities concerned to create taluka resources groups, village vigilance committees, monitoring committees for social auditing etc.

The state government has asked all the district collectors and other officials concerned to finish of the social auditing of NREGA scheme as per the Centre's new guideline before November 16, 2009.