State Cong to hold meet to discuss NREGA ‘anomalies’

The purpose is to discuss future strategies and also make the volunteers aware about the right way to highlight the alleged misuse of funds. For this purpose,the party has prepared an 11-page booklet called “Workers Awareness Campaign” with AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi’s picture on the cover page.

The booklet,to be released by Digvijay Singh,will be distributed to the NREGA workers at the local levels by the party volunteers.

According to sources,the decision to launch such a campaign was taken as during the last four months,the NREGA cell has come across various instances of corruption and anomalies in the schemes. Moreover,the Centre has also written to the state government to take action on complaints,but to no avail.

Sanjay Dixit,Chairman of the state NREGA cell and also member of the Central monitoring committee,said: “We have tried everything — right from writing letters to even requesting for proper action in cases of anomalies and corruption — but hardly anything has happened so far. Thus,we now plan to attack the Mayawati government using the NREGA tool.”

“Under Section 27 (2) of the NREGA,the Centre can initiate inquiry or take action in case of anomalies. Moreover,since there are set guidelines under which direct action can be taken by the Centre,the state government cannot make an excuse of federal structure here — like they have done in other Centrally-sponsored schemes in the state,” said Dixit.

As per Section 27 (2) of the Act,the Centre — on receipt of any complaint regarding improper utilisation of funds,finds it to be prima facie satisfactory — can initiate an investigation into the complaint by any agency designated by it. Not only this,it can also stop releasing funds and institute appropriate remedial measures for its proper implementation within a reasonable period of time.

The Congress,meanwhile,plans to highlight the Rastriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) for NREGA workers announced by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget speech.

Currently,RSBY covers only BPL families,but the inclusion of NREGA workers would ensure that even those living above the poverty line in rural areas can avail the benefits of the health insurance. “We expect a large number of beneficiaries to be covered under RSBY as the Centre has kept the basic requirement of just 15 days of work under NREGA. This is important for a state like UP,where hardly seven per cent of the total NREGA labourers have got work for 100 days in a year,” said Dixit.