insight
Economic & Political
Weekly
EPW
february 23, 2008
43
districts in Gujarat, ocers are being senton deputation rom other governmentdepartments, particularly the irrigationdepartment, as
PO
s. In Pohri block o Shivpuri district in Madhya Pradesh, thepanchayat inspector is also the
PO
o
NREGA
. In Tikamgarh and Khandwa dis-tricts o
MP
, the
CEO
s o block panchayatshave been given additional charge o
NREGA
. In Raigarh, Sarguja and Rajnand-gaon districts o Chhattisgarh, uncertainty o tenure and resulting discontinuity havehad an adverse impact on
NREGA
work.
PO
s are demoralised and unmotivated andeel that the work done by them has cometo nothing. In Orissa’s Bolangir district,engineers o line departments have beengiven additional responsibility o
NREGA
.For a block o 140 villages, there are only our to ve junior engineers (
JE
s), two o whom are given additional responsibility or
NREGA
, while the others continue withtheir normal departmental work. Thesetwo
JE
s in-charge o
NREGA
also look aterother schemes such as the Backward RegionGrant Fund, Indira Awas Yojana, RevisedLong Term Action Plan or
KBK
, Biju-
KBK
Scheme,
MPLAD
and
DPAP
.The documentation and procedural re-quirements o
NREGA
oten make it an un-attractive proposition as compared tothese other schemes where nancial leak-ages are seen to be easier. Thus, the wholeprocess o planning and design o works,implementation, measurement and pay-ment is marked with poor attention toquality and long delays. In Chhattisgarh, thesituation is no dierent. In Wardranagarblock o Sarguja district, or instance, ourtechnical assistants are shared across 72gram panchayats. There is no pool o engi-neers available at the district either. InRaigarh and Jashpur districts, where resh
JE
s have been appointed, their tenure isagain or a period o one year, ater which ithas to be renewed. The number o such
JE
salls ar short o what is required. Similarshortages o technical sta are reportedrom the Dahod and Panchmahals districtsin Gujarat. In Tikamgarh and Shivpuridistricts o
MP
, the Regional EngineeringServices (
RES
) and other line departmentengineers have been given additional chargeo
NREGA
. In Tikamgarh, some appoint-ment o engineers at the block or districtlevel have been made, but under contractor a limited tenure. In Khandwa, there havebeen some contractual appointments buttoo ew to make any dierence. In Anuppur,also there is a shortage o technical per-sonnel at the disposal o the
GP
s, as a resulto which they are dependent on engineers o line departments posted at the block level.
3 Delay Admrao
This shortage o sta leads delays in exe-cution o works and payment o wages.This is the experience in all our consortiumdistricts but the most vivid illustration o the process comes rom Bolangir andNuapada districts o Orissa. The
JE
preparesthe work plans and estimates. This itsel takes time, since the
JE
is also overloaded with other responsibilities. Once the planis made, it is submitted to the assistant en-gineer (
AE
) or approval. Since each
AE
isat times given the responsibility o morethan one block, approval at the
AE
level alsotakes extra time. When the
AE
approves it,the proposal is sent to the
PO
(
BDO
) who haspowers to approve a plan up to Rs 2 lakh.I the proposal is or more than Rs 2 lakh,it is sent to the district headquarters. Oncethe work is approved and unds releasedor it, the cheque is signed by the sarpanch,the panchayat
EO
and
the
PO
-
BDO
. The
BDO
’ssignature is an additional requirement un-der
NREGA
; normal non-
NREGA
panchayat works do not need this signature. This ur-ther delays withdrawal o unds and exe-cution o works.Once work reaches a certain stage, the work done has to be valuated and pay-ments made to workers based on this valu-ation. This requires technical people whoare in short supply. This means that meas-urement itsel can sometimes take severalmonths, although it is supposed to be done within a week. A utilisation certicate(
UC
) has to be submitted by the panchayatto the
PO
-
BDO
, or release o the next in-stalment. Ater measurement is done, the
UC
is prepared and sent to the
PO
-
BDO
.The
PO
-
BDO
then waits or all
GP
s to sub-mit their
UC
s so that they can be pooledtogether and sent to the district panchayat(
DP
) or the next tranche. I one or two
GP
sdelay submission o their
UC
s, onwardsubmission to the
DP
is delayed.In parts o Shivpuri district, MadhyaPradesh, delays o as much as two to threemonths in payment o wages have beenreported. Wage payments are delayedbecause o long gaps between executionand valuation o work due to paucity o engineers. In Rajnandgaon, delays in wagepayments are reported by
PRI
leaders asone o the major problems acing
NREGA
works. In Sarguja, a shortage o technicalpersonnel to do the valuation work is re-ported to cause delays in wage paymentso up to three months.
4 Lack o People’ Pla
Another serious consequence o shortageo proessional sta is that there is littleeort at social mobilisation without whichthere is no chance o
NREGA
emerging as apeople-centred programme.In Rajnandgaon, Raigarh, Sarguja andJashpur districts o Chhattisgarh, worksare ocused mainly on activities or whichstandardised estimates are available.Plans are made and approved at the “top”and sent downwards or implementationby the
GP
s. For instance, in the entireWardranagar block o Sarguja, 75 percent o unds have been utilised on roadso dierent types. Since this area is one o the poorest tribal pockets o the country, with a long history o droughts, the ocusshould naturally have been on droughtproong. The topography is naturally suitedto watershed works too. But these are notthe priority o
NREGA
plans.In Mandla district,
MP
there is an ab-sence o annual plans. The shel o projectsexists but it is very broad in nature and theactivities are not well dened. The generalpractice is that unds are rst released by the
DP
and then activities are identied. InShivpuri, the ocus continues to be roads.The gram sabha is not aware o the plansnor do people know that without their ap-proval, works cannot start or be complet-ed. The perspective plans are photocopieso those prepared or the National Foodor Work Programme (
NFFWP
). A list o such works compiled together has ormedthe perspective plan. The annual plansalso are prepared in the orm o lists culledout rom previously prepared “plans”. Activities may be subtracted rom theselists or added to them by the
PO
and the
RES
engineers on their own.In Tikamgarh district there are no an-nual working plans ratied by the gramsabha. The plans are prepared by the
CEO
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My Name is Santosh Poonia, I have completed by M.A . (Sociology and Political Science with 1st class marks. i have also work in development sector ago 8 years. I wish to join the new P.O. program of Nrega in Rajasthan State. so please tell me how can i apply for this post. With Best Regards: Santosh Poonia Mobile No. 09414378471
Understanding NREGA. (By Rouf Ahmad Zargar) The Parliament enacted an Act No. 42 of 2005 called the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act NREGA. The Act provides a guarantee for rural employment to house holds whose adult members volunteer to do un-skilled manual work not less than 100 days of such work in a financial year in accordance with the scheme made under the Act. The scheme has been launched on February 2nd 2006 in 200 districts of the Country excluding the state of Jammu & Kashmir. NREG Extension Bill was passed in 2007 and necessary amendment was made to Section 1 of the act thus making it applicable to the state of J&K also. In J&K State it was introduced in the Districts of Kupwara, Poonch and Doda in the first instance and now it has been extended to all other districts in a phased manner. The scheme is expected to enhance people’s livelihood on sustained basis by developing economic and social infrastructure in rural areas. This scheme is a direct attack on the causes of chronic poverty such as un-employment, drought, deforestation and soil erosion, which are all a great matter of concern for our state. It’s a strong social safety net for the vulnerable groups by providing a fall-back employment source, when other employment alternatives are scarce or inadequate. The scheme is different from the earlier wage employment programmes in different ways: -It provides legal guarantee of 100 days work to every rural household whose adult member volunteer to do un-skilled manual work. & if an applicant is not provided employment within 15 days he / she shall be entitled to un-employment allowance. Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is demand-driven instead of being supply-driven. The focus of the scheme is on: Water conservation and water harvesting, Drought proofing including afforestation and tree plantation, Irrigation canals including micro and minor irrigation works, Provision of irrigation facilities to land owned by house holds belonging to SC/ST or to land of beneficiaries of land reforms or that of the beneficiaries under Indira Aawaas Yojna.(IAY). There has been a failure in understanding the real nature of employment in the country. Ecological assets like land and forests are the key employment sources for rural people in India . Any attempt to create employment must focus on these sectors. The conditions for guaranteed rural employment under a scheme is that the adult members of every household who are willing to do unskilled manual work, may submit their names, age and the address of the household to the Gram Panchayat at the village level in the jurisdiction or to the Block Programme Officer/BDO at the Block level. Rouf Ahmad Zargar is Programme Officer-NREGA. For Any Information regarding NREGA, Contact:+91-9419418866 Or mail: rouf.zargar@yahoo.com
Hello i am the Programme Officer in J&K, i may assist any of u if u want. u may verify my name at nrega site here 164.100.12.7/ListPO.asp?D istr164.100.12.7/ListPO.asp?District_code=1409ict_ code=1409 mail me or call me on the number 09419418866 mail:rouf.zargar@yahoo.com
I am Shashikant R. Pandey with MBA(Rural Development) with Three years and Three months Experience in Marketing and Presently working as Field Executive(since 18th September-2009) with BASIX - A new generation livelihood Promotion Institution. I am willing to join NREGA as APO. Kindly guide me.
i am harish kumar ghalot i am working in nrega as atechnical assistant in one year also im complete mba result is shortaly comming why we r applay tell me
i m tej dubey student of MBA 4th sem Delhi university now i want to join job in narega please send me a feed back about it ,how i am apply it .
I M Ram kumar rajput ,i m persuing mba from college of engineering sciences & technology (UPTU)LUCKNOW. HOW CAN APPLY FOR NAREGA PROGRAM.
i m persueing mba from uptu. How can i apply for A.P.O. Narega program