PRAVIN KUMAR
Ranchi, Feb 28: The Labour Budget of Jharkhand for the year 2022-23 has been stopped by the Central Government due to negligence by the officials of the Rural Development Department. According to sources, the central government has stopped the labour budget of MNREGA scheme of eight states, including Jharkhand.
As per the information, the payment of ongoing work in the current financial year has not been withheld. During 2021-22, around Rs. 2554 crores have been spent in the MNREGA scheme in Jharkhand whereas in 2020-21, the amount was Rs. 3489.
In the past, rural people have been getting employment on the basis of MGNREGA. It remains a major support to the rural economy. The MNREGA workers will have to bear the brunt of stopping the labour budget by the Centre.
The labour budget contributes to 60 percent of the total budget in the MNREGA scheme . The Secretary of Rural Development Department, Manish Ranjan, refused to give any official comment on this.
Reason – The states whose labour budget has been stopped will have to appoint Lokpal in their state. The appointment of Lokpal has been made mandatory in at least 8 percent of the districts.
Current Status – The posts of MNREGA Lokpal have been vacant for about one and a half years. On February 2, Lokpals were appointed in 17 different districts of the state. Also, the newly appointed accountants joined on February 10. After the appointment of Lokpal, Any person can file a complaint of irregularities being done in MNREGA schemes.
Reason- Social Audit Unit is to appoint an Independent Director.
Current Status – The post of Independent Director is currently vacant.
Reason – Social audit must be done in those gram panchayats, where a social audit of MNREGA scheme has not been done for the year 2019-20.
Present Status – Social audit of MGNREGA schemes has not been done in the state for the last 2 years. According to the information, the calendar of social audit of MNREGA has been issued by the Rural Development Department for 1000 panchayats in 24 districts of the state.
According to the released calendar, between January 4 and March 15, a social audit of 1000 panchayats is to be held. As per the information, social audit of the schemes for the year 2021-22 is currently ongoing in 1000 panchayats.
The social audit is being done in those panchayats where it wasn’t done earlier. In the last two years, many irregularities have also come up in the schemes. The process of conducting a social audit has been resumed only after complaints of financial irregularities. This process should be done according to the instructions by the Government of India.
Reason – In case of irregularities in social audits in the past, 50 percent recovery of plan amount has to be made by March 2022.
Present status – A case of financial irregularities of Rs. 51 crores or more has been exposed through social audits in the works across the state. In this, during the social audit in the financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2020-21 in Jharkhand, Rs 16.46 crore, Rs 19.07 crore, Rs 13.53 crore and Rs 0.23 crore (a total of Rs 51.32 crore) were spent and financial irregularities were found. At present, the amount of Rs 51.32 crore has been recovered by the Jharkhand government.
