Many complaints on rural job scheme: Government

The UPA government admitted in parliament Monday that that there have been a lot of complaints on implementation of its flagship rural jobs guarantee scheme across the country.

Most of the complaints relate to cases of job cards not being provided, misappropriation of funds, engagement of contractors, forgery of rolls, under payment of wages, non-payment of wages, use of machinery and delay in payments, Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

He said that since the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is vested with the states, all complaints which are received are forwarded to the concerned governments for taking appropriate action.

More than 50 lakh households have completed 100 days of employment during 2012-13 and about 21 and half lakh new job cards have been issued during this period, he added.

The mandate of the MGNREGA is to provide a minimum of 100 days of guaranteed employment to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.