Principal secretary to the rural development department, Prabhakar Deshmukh, informed dna that his department has formed a separate directorate for the social audit.
For the first time, there would be a social audit for all the works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The audit will be done through video recording as well as spot visits for work done in 500 gram panchayats this year. The move is aimed at preventing corruption in the scheme.
Principal secretary to the rural development department, Prabhakar Deshmukh, informed dna that his department has formed a separate directorate for the social audit. The severity of the drought is expected to increase in the coming days, and it has been estimated that this year, nearly 5.5 lakh people would be deployed for MGNREGS works throughout the state.
The Union government has passed a legislation for mandatory social audit of various schemes so that public money is spent with due accountability and transparency. The Centre has asked the state governments to spend 60 per cent of the MGNREGS funds on agriculture-related works and has also instructed them to spend the funds in such a way that assets for the society are created out of rural employment guarantee scheme projects. The number of projects on the shelf right now can provide employment to 1,212 lakh people, it has been estimated, and the government is hoping that the number of labourers would increase in the coming days.
Deshmukh informed that the state has prepared a detailed plan so that any person would be provided with NREGS work within 15 days by preparing his or her job card. He said all the labourers working under the scheme would be paid their wages through their bank accounts. He also said that those who desire to work under the scheme must approach their gram panchayat.
Number game
This year, the state has spent Rs1,400 crore on the scheme. Last year the figure was Rs1,245 crore.
This year till February 4, 3,25,840 labourers were working under the scheme while last year the number was 2.27 lakh.
This year, 495 lakh man days of work has been done through the scheme while last year it was 447 lakh man days of work.
Previously, the mandate was to provide work to labourers while mitigating drought condition. Henceforth, the mandate would be to create long-term and tangible assets while providing work to labourers to provide employment during drought years.
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