Chandigarh, January 13
An assessment of the implementation of the much-celebrated National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) of the Centre for Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh has found that the scheme has had the least impact on Punjab followed by Haryana. However, the scheme has met with
substantial success in Himachal Pradesh.
The study, conducted by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) here, as part of the United Nations Development programmes (UNDP), has examined the impact of the scheme in Hoshiarpur district in Punjab, Sirsa district in Haryana and Sirmaur district in Himachal Pradesh where NREGS was introduced in its first phase.
While most panchayats implementing the scheme reported delay in receiving funds and lack of staff, in Sirsa more than 12 per cent of the panchayats reported that there was corruption in its implementation.
Interestingly, a study team from CRRID also found several irregularities in muster rolls being maintained at work sites in many places in the districts. At some work sites, the involvement of contractors in violation of the NREGS rules was also discovered.
A place to rest for workers and adequate childcare facilities were missing
at most work sites.
While more than 60 per cent panchayats in Sirsa and nearly three-fourth panchayats in Sirmaur reported that the agricultural productivity had increased due to NREGA activities, more than 85 per cent of panchayats in Hoshiarpur said NREGA had no impact on agriculture and irrigation.
Importantly, the report also found that there had been no change in in-migration of workers to Sirmaur and Hoshiarpur whereas 37 per cent of panchayats in Sirsa reported that in-migration had decreased as work was available to natives due to NREGS. However, in all three states, there had been a fall in out-migration of villagers in search of work. All panchayats in Sirmaur, three-fourths in Hoshiarpur and 50 per cent in Sirsa reported that out-migration from their villages had dwindled.
The study found that while gram panchayats played a crucial role in planning and implementation of the scheme, these had not been trained well. All elected panchayat members in Sirsa and Sirmaur had been trained for the implementation of the scheme, but only one-fifth of the panchayats in Hoshiarpur had received the training.
The reports added that while all panchayats in Sirmaur had constituted social audit committees to act as a watchdog over its implementation, in Sirsa only one gram panchayat had formed a committee and in Hoshiarpur only two panchayats had functional social audit committees.
In Sirsa and
Hoshiarpur, no panchayat had constituted a grievance committee while in Sirmaur some
panchayats had a grievance committee. Awareness regarding the “measurement book” was far better among panchayat members in Sirsa as compared to Hoshiarpur
and Sirmaur.
The study further added that the mode of allocation of work in Sirsa was done
on a consolidated basis where the workers could work at their own pace while in
Sirmaur and Hoshiapur, the work was allocated on a daily basis.
