'DNA' investigations: Maharashtra fails in taking NREGS to its villages

Maharashtra, the state that pioneered the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) back in 1976, today has the worst record in implementing the United Progressive Alliance’s showpiece National Rural EGS (NREGS). Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh recently wrote to state chief minister Prithviraj Chavan expressing concern over this.

A detailed study by DNA found that the state has failed utterly in implementing the scheme. Be it providing employment or drawing funds from the central government, the state lags far behind other states. According to the official website of the NREGS, in about 21,000 of the approximately 28,000 panchayats in the state, or in three out of every four, no work has been taken up under the scheme.  This means nearly 50% of the total 43,497 panchayats left out of the NREGS across India are in Maharashtra. Supposedly backward Madhya Pradesh, which has almost the same number of panchayats as Maharashtra, has been able to reach out to about 94% of them.

Not only has NREGS not reached all Maharashtra villages, it has also failed to draw enough funds from the central NREGS pool — Rs668  crore from central NREGS pool in the current financial year. This, when some states have spent over Rs4,000 crore. States smaller than Maharashtra have been drawing more than Rs2,000 crore per annum.

The NREGS was seen as crucial to the UPA’s impressive performance in the 2009 general elections. The act is officially called the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and implemented across the state, barring Mumbai city and Mumbai suburban districts.

Under the act, the Maharashtra government guarantees each rural household 365 days of employment a year, of which up to 100 days are provided under the MGNREGA. Expenditure incurred for employment generation exceeding 100 days is to be done from the earlier EGS.  

While the state government drew up an ambitious policy guaranteeing 365 days of employment per household, it has failed to provide even 100 days.

Another sure-fire indicator of the failure of the scheme in Maharashtra is the non-issue of job cards for villagers seeking work. As per the NREGS records, more than 2.35 lakh families in Maharashtra have failed to get job cards despite registering for the scheme. Only Uttar Pradesh, which has a population that is double Maharashtra’s, has a larger backlog. Ashwini Kulkarni, policy analyst and EGS expert, said it was strange that the state was lagging behind in the implementation of a scheme that it had pioneered and in whose running it had the most experience and know-how.

Unfortunately, the state government seems to lack the will to improve its performance. Guidelines under the NREG Act stipulate that governments must appoint an ‘employment guarantee assistant’ or Gram Rozgar Sahayak in each village. But when DNA visited several places in Marathwada and interviewed several Gram Rozgar Sahayaks, it found that many had not even been given formal appointment letters. The Rozgar Sahayaks in the state, who are mostly rural, educated youth, have organised several protest marches, but to no avail.

Besides, the percentage of total expenditure to the total amount paid as delayed payments is highest in the state. While in states like Andhra Pradesh the percentage is less than 5, in Maharashtra it is more than 40. Even Bihar (13%) and Uttar Pradesh (20%) have performed better. One district collector said, on condition of anonymity, “If Gram Rozgar Sahayaks are trained and given proper remuneration, the delay will certainly come down.”

When DNA asked principal secretary (EGS) V Giriraj about the delay in payments, he said the government is trying to streamline the process. “Things will be better in future,” he promised, without saying when the future will be here.