4.6 lakh projects under MGNREGA pending for months in Rajasthan
DIRECTION In a recent review meeting, district officials told to complete the incomplete projects by March 31, 2020
BARMER: Despite various levels of monitoring and review by the government agencies, 4.6 lakh projects sanctioned under the Mahatma Ganndhi National Rural Guarantee Act are pending for many months, according to a letter written to district MGNREGS coordinators in Rajasthan.
Out of the 4.6 lakh projects, 176,000 were sanctioned in 2017-18, 163,000 in 2018-19 and 60,883 in 2019-20, the letter stated.
According to the MGNREGA norms, gram panchayats prepare proposals for the yearly plan and move them to panchayat samiti.
In turn, panchayat samitis with necessary recommendations move the proposals to zila parishad, which then prepares a comprehensive plan for the district and moves it to the state government for approval.
After approval from the government and a due process of technical, financial and administrative sanctions, a MGNREGA project is handed over to the executive agency.
However, despite goi ng through the entire process, 4.6 lakh MGNREGA projects are incomplete in Rajasthan for many months.
On October 7, Arun Surana, s uperintending engineer, MGNREGS, wrote a letter to the district officials directing them to complete the incomplete MGNREGA projects by March 31, 2020. In the letter, Surana also attached a list of the pending MGNREGA projects, which revealed that 4.6 lakh projects were pending in the state for many months.
Mohandan Ratnu, chief executive officer (CEO), Barmer Zila
Parishad, confirmed the report. Ratnu said that there are a large number of MGNREGA projects pending i n t he dist ri ct f or months. It happened due to several reasons including land dispute o r a ny o t her di s pute between beneficiary and executing agency, he added.
It is also possible that some projects were completed but their utilisation certificate was not issued and hence they were s h o wn i n c o mple t e in the records, Ratnu said.
He s a i d t hat t he hi g he r authorities have taken a note of the matter and had called a special review meeting in Jaipur on October 18.
In the meeting, district level officials were directed to take necessary action on the incomplete MGNREGA projects and complete them by March 31, 2020.
“I have directed the concerned officials to prepare a list of pending works. Soon, we plan to call a review meeting at district headquarter in which we will discuss detailed plan to ensure time bound competition of pending works,” said Ratnu, adding that the projects that cann o t b e c o mpl e t e d wi l l b e removed from the list.
According to the official data, Udaipur has maximum 56,164 incomplete MGNREGA projects, followed by 53, 353 incomplete projects in Banswara, 30,313 incomplete projects in Bharatpur and 27,499 incomplete projects in Dungarpur. Jhunjhunu has the lowest 2,048 incomplete projects.
Interestingly, there are 1.32 lakh MGNREGA projects on which no money has been spent in the past three years.
Similarly, there are 1.59 lakh projects on which no money has been spent in the past two years and there are 2.58 lakh projects on which no money has been spent in the past one year.
Shockingly, there are 812 projects on which the executing agency has utilised the material budget, but not a single rupee has been spent on the labour head, which is a clear violation of the MGNREGA, which provides for 60:40 ratio of labour-material in any project.
Besides, there were 1.49 lakh projects on which the executing agency utilised only 5 percent of the total sanctioned budget.