Rural job scheme review needed to stop misuse: Govt

After a group of 28 economists from India and abroad wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not diluting the provisions of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the government on Thursday said a review was needed to break a network of interests and stop the acquiring of easy money through the scheme.

The rural development ministry came out with reasons for reforming the programme and also objections raised to the scheme from various quarters, including the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)'s. It suggested the scheme be linked with skill development.

Saying the scheme had earned "quite a bad name", the ministry explained there was "lack of a genuinely demand-driven implementation mechanism."

It noted there was "absolute lack of collectively thought development projects, leading to a de-linking between requirements of the village and activities carried out under the scheme".

It emphasised the necessity to convert the scheme into "a popular movement aimed at zero-unemployment in villages."

"Unless an extremely likely network of interests is not broken, the real picture will not emerge." The government's assertion came against the backdrop of objections by Left parties, former rural development minister Jairam Ramesh and leading economists to any "dilution" of the programme, which came into force through an Act of Parliament in 2005.

The ministry has directed at least 50 per cent of the expenditure be on water harvesting and minor irrigation community assets as sought by some states.

The note said to plug the leakages. The ministry has directed a geographic information system-based satellite monitoring of works, which can only be effectively done if the nature of work undertaken shifts to large community assets.

To counter siphoning of funds and late payments of wages, the ministry said it had directed for the setting up of an e-wage payment portal. The ministry also listed other steps it had taken in the last couple of months to streamline works under the plan.