Now,NREGS-problem districts to have monitoring officers

The Rural Development Commissioner,Manoj Kumar Singh,said since Uttar Pradesh is the largest state with over Rs 7,000 crore being allocated for the scheme,it is important to monitor the scheme to ensure transparency and leave no room for corruption.

“We have not just identified the problem districts,but also the measures which can be taken to tackle these problems,” said Singh.

Since monitoring officers will be held responsible for anything that happens in their districts,it will usher in accountability. Plus,reviews will also be done on weekly and fortnightly basis,which will ensure that the districts become more alert,said Singh.

Regarding the recruitment of these officers,a senior official of the department said: “Since NREGS has the provision for monitoring officers,there was no problem in creating this post. We will be distributing this task among our officials. The 40 officers will be taken either from our NREGS office or the rural development office or the office of the RD commissioner.”

To begin with,the department has selected 40 districts of 71 in the state. These districts include the seven in Bundelkhand,apart from four in the Vindhyanchal region,Kausambi,Basti,Maharajganj,Siddharth Nagar,Shrawasti,Sant Ravidas Nagar,Kushinagar,Ballia and Pratapgarh among others.

The districts have been chosen on basis of the problems faced by the department in successful implementation of the programme and number of reports of frauds,delay in payments and poor quality work.

While the officials are yet to be chosen,sources say that they will be going to the fields regularly to check the work which are underway and also those which have been completed.

The payments will be cleared only after the monitoring officer verifies the task and gives the green signal.

Even for introducing new tasks,the department will ask for suggestions from these officers.