GreaterKashmir.com:
Srinagar: Monday, 29 September 2014.
“The Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act aims at enhancing the livelihood
security of people in rural areas by guaranteeing hundred days of
wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members
volunteer to do unskilled manual work.”
The current
disaster in the valley has created a huge challenge in front of the affected
people. Challenge to get their livelihood back on track. As per initial
estimate, floods have caused a loss of around Rs.5, 700 crore, with heavy damages
to trade, hotels, restaurants, horticulture and handicraft. In the aftermaths
of floods, people will actually have to start a new life.
But struggle
for livelihood is not new in the valley especially for the economically weaker
sections of the society as it has never been in any part of our country.
According to a recent Indian Government report, nearly 38% of India’s
population is poor and more than 75% of poor people reside in villages. Rural
poverty is largely a result of low productivity and unemployment.
Huge amount
of money will now be spent in the name of relief and rehabilitation but how,
and with what ease it is implemented on ground, will make all the difference.
In past, in order to alleviate rural poverty by generating employment and creation
of sustainable assets in Rural India, Government of India had brought in the
flagship programme called Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act (MGNREGA), 2005. However, it’s been close to a decade since its inception
but this programme has suffered a huge setback on account of many flaws at the
administrative level. There are many stories which lay hidden among the rural
parts of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is very evident when we take a
closer look at the houses here in Kupwara District and see how desperate,
people eligible to benefit from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
are.
“If our
father would have been alive, we would have had at least two meals a day” cries
out Tabassum, Rafeeeqa’s daughter. Rafeeeqa hails from Dard Haire village in
Kralpora block of Kupwara district in Jammu and Kashmir. The helplessness is
clearly visible in Rafeeqa’s eyes who lost her husband and have a daughter and
two sons to take care of after him. Her elder son Zakir was forced to leave his
studies after the seventh standard and take up a job to support his family.
Though Rafeeqa holds a job card under the act in 2009, she was employed only
for two days and has been jobless since then. The flaws that lay within the
system, and the huge corruption at the administrative level have totally failed
individuals like Rafeeqa at the grass-root level.
The 100 days
Rozgar (employment) under this Act has now become an easy profit-making
business for the various govt officials within the system. Rafeeqa strongly
believes that the insensitivity of the system and the nexus between the corrupt
officers, politicians and the contractors has been a big hurdle for her to get
work.
The rain acts
havoc during the monsoon as her house leaks. “I do not have money to feed my
children, how I will renovate the house. I am forced to send my youngest son
Mehraj to JK Yateem Foundation at Bail-ul Hilal,” she adds. Another NGO that
helps her with her monthly ration is the Sayeedus Sadaat Islamic Falahi Trust.
Statistics on
the State government website reveal that the J&K government has spent over
Rupees 2000 crore on MGNREGA till April 2014, of which Rupees 78 lakhs has been
allotted to Kupwara alone. One may like to understand where are the funds
going?
A month ago
during a meeting of the 4th State Employment Guarantee Council meeting was held
under the chairmanship of Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Law
Justice and Parliament Affairs, Ali Muhammad Sagar, the govt had increased the
wage rate of unskilled workers under MGNREGA from the present 131 rupees a day
to 157. It also decided to hike the emoluments of the supporting staff being
engaged under the scheme. It was also given out that the labor budget of the
State for the 2014-15 has been approved as 288.20 lakh man-days.
The minister
had further stressed and directed the officers to prepare a comprehensive
Detail Project Reports (DPRs) well in time before the start of the financial
year and all modalities of the expenditure on the labour part would be provided
out of the MGNREGA funds.
The Gram
Sabhas fails to release such information in the villages and the villagers are
unaware of any such announcements and entitlements. The information does not
reach the eligible individuals who actually deserve it. Hence, people like
Rafeeqa remain in the dark for the amount of money being accounted on their
behalf.
The loopholes
in paper work brings into notice that there is no concrete documentation as to
how many people have actually benefitted from this Act.
Ironically,
as per section 4(1) b of the RTI Act, such information needs to be disclosed at
the Panchayat level and should further be disseminated widely through media.
The information should be painted on walls in the village or to be read out in
the Gram Sabha. But nothing has been done so far.
The
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had criticized the Jammu and Kashmir
government over lapses in MGNREGA implementation, including delayed release and
mis-utilization of funds last year in its report. The auditor had clearly
directed the state government to scrupulously follow modalities prescribed in
the act. The auditor zeroed in facts like unauthorized retention of funds,
delayed release and diversion of funds, execution of unapproved works, delay in
payment of wages to workers, faulty estimates, shortfall in engagement of staff
and their inadequate training.
Though the
stories of illegal practices and corruption have made way to the newspapers,
the administration seems to have turned a deaf ear to people like Rafeeqa.
Rather than ensuring greater transparency, accountability and good governance
looks like the officials have settled for personal goals. The ghost of poverty
& unemployment still haunts rural J&K and many people in rural India
wait for promises to be fulfilled, something that has become a far-fetched
dream. Based on the past experiences, Kashmiris can only hope that the relief
and rehabilitation funds do not fall in corrupted hands.
PIR
AZHAR
(Charkha
Features, exclusively for Greater Kashmir)
.JPG)
.JPG)
