BENGAL’S NREGA JAM
Trouble is brewing between the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal and the NDAruled Centre over the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (NREGA). The state has topped the chart in terms of providing employment under the scheme in 20202021, but instead of accolades, it is struggling to pay wages to workers for the last five months of the 202122 fiscal. This is because, the state says, the Centre has not released Rs 6,500 crore towards labour payment and cost of material. The Centre disagrees, and argues that the amount was spent on creating an additional three crore mandays without taking prior sanction, as is the practice. Moreover, the Centre has not sanctioned the new NREGA labour budget the state tabled for 202223, forcing it to take the unprecedented step of stopping all work under the scheme.
“The decision is impacting 1.4 crore job card holders and the rural economy,” says Pulak Roy, minister for panchayats and rural development. Roy adds that dues are now Rs 7,200 crore, since the state had created 2.15 crore mandays this fiscal, even though the scheme’s budget was pending. While the TMC government is citing this as an instance of the BJP’s hostility to Bengal, that hides a more controversial aspect.
A central monitoring team has unearthed alleged irregularities in the implementation of the scheme in Bengal—mismatches between work shown on records and actual work done, creation of a whopping number of mandays even in lockdown months and fake muster rolls with bogus workers. It is alleged that the work done under NREGA included digging up existing ponds, constructing private roads and cleaning private courtyards.
Actually, early warnings had apparently been coming since 2019. In January 2021, a central team led by a joint secretary of the rural development ministry visited over a dozen panchayats in Purba and Paschim Bardhaman and Hooghly districts, inspected 63 areas of work and apparently found 50 per cent had “glaring shortcomings”. It asked for explanations, but reportedly got “unsatisfactory” replies. In October 2021, the ministry wanted to inquire into alleged misappropriation of Rs 200 crore NREGA money covering Bankura, Alipurduar, North Dinajpur, Jhargram and South 24 Parganas districts. The state allegedly refused to cooperate. More visits followed, so did a warning of action under Section 27 of MGNREGA Act, which empowers the Centre, on receipt of complaints of improper utilisation of funds, to stop its release. Another central directive asked the state to recover money allegedly siphoned off through ghost workers or for works outside the ambit of the scheme. And the Centre’s version is that it was met with noncompliance. Now, one central inspection team has slapped a fine of Rs 2 crore on the Hooghly district administration, Rs 1 crore on Purba Bardhaman and nearly a crore on Malda for alleged irregularities.
Some of this does resonate on the ground. “Fake muster rolls are the panchayats’ doing. Job cards are issued to TMC supporters. A panchayat official keeps the cards and ATM cards and on payment day people are herded to the bank. The labourers get a pittance and they hardly complain as most work for 510 days, while the record shows 4050 days of work,” says a resident of Katwa in Purba Bardhaman.
Many allege that the mandatory criterion for securing a job card is proximity to the local TMC unit. Bandana Ray, 47, of Dehura in Purba Bardhaman alleges she was turned away when she asked for a NREGA job. “Panchayat leaders told me I would have got one had I not voted for BJP,” she alleges. Dehura has around 3,000 people, but only 527 job cards have been issued. “Of this, only onefourth comprises genuine workers, but out of 40 days, they were made to work for 1520 days. One can guess who embezzled the rest of the wages,” says Diptyashya Jash, a resident.
Indeed, going by the records, the alleged inflation in mandays is on a rather startling scale. For instance, on a single day during the lockdown months in 2020, 18 lakh people of Hooghly district—nearly onethird of the population—were listed as being engaged in NREGA work. South 24 Parganas recorded two lakh mandays in a lockdown week and Jalangi in Murshidabad showed over 15.78 lakh people working, when the population is not over 2.55 lakh. In Bankura, some panchayats with a population of a few thousands have allegedly shown 1.31 lakh people employed on a single day.
Another alleged irregularity is the distribution of job cards to ineligible people like government employees, BSF officials, police personnel, anganwadi and health workers, even Bangladeshi nationals. Children, too, are recorded as having been put to ‘work’. About 2.41 lakh children from 5,592 ICDS (anganwadi) centres of Bankura were made to participate in sapling plantation, a work no longer recognised under NREGA.
“Three lakh migrants returning to Malda during lockdown had no NREGA work, but official records show that lakhs did so. The central inspection team has the documents but I see no action against panchayat masterminds. However, depriving people of their livelihood by not sanctioning the budget is not right,” Masud Alam, general secretary of Malda Congress, says.
With panchayat elections scheduled in 2023, CM Mamata Banerjee has flagged the withholding of funds as a Machiavellian design by the Centre to cripple the state economically. The BJP disagrees. “In NREGA, employment is guaranteed on the basis of demand from job card holders. But Bengal sets a target of mandays and prepares muster rolls. The state must bring transparency in attendance, geotagging and measurement of works. The MoRD wants the culprits to be booked. Why is the state not doing so?” asks BJP state general secretary Jagannath Chattopadhyay. As the local polls draw near, expect the rhetoric to fly—from the panchayats to the macro arenas. ■
THE IRREGULARITIES ALLEGED INCLUDE INELIGIBLE CARD HOLDERS, BOGUS MUSTER ROLLS, INFLATED MANDAYS, UNLISTED WORK...