Par panel for bridging MGNREGA gap

Underlining the persistent gap between employment demand and the work provided under the government's flagship scheme MGNREGA in most of the big states, a parliamentary panel today asked the Rural Development Ministry to play a proactive role to bridge it.
The Standing Committee on Rural Development chaired by AIADMK member P Venugopal also expressed its dismay over the non-completion of Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 and asked the government to expedite it.
The panel said it was found that almost a decade-old mega rural employment scheme MGNREGA has been witnessing a gap between employment demanded and employment provided due to several factors.

"For instance, during 2014-15 the number of households, which demanded employment was 4.65 crore, while the household which were given employment was 4.14 crore annually," the panel said in its 21st report.
The panel found that among 16 MGNREGA beneficiary states, in almost all the big ones like West Bengal, Rajasthan, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh there was a gap between employment demand vis-a-vis work provided.
Noting that although the number of households provided employment in 2015-16 was higher than the previous year, the panel said it yet strongly felt that considering the persistent gap, largely in big states, the rural development department should play a proactive role to bridge it in a more focussed manner.

It also expressed its dismay over the issue of the appointment of Ombudsman at district level in different states for MGNREGA works.

On the issue of slashing of funds, it said, "The Committee is constrained to note that the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) has suffered huge reduction of funds during the 12th Plan (2012-17) period.
"For instance, as against the requirement of funds of Rs 2.03 lakh crore recommended by the Working Group on Rural Roads, the PMGSY could actually get Rs 51,076 crore, which is 25 per cent of the original demand worked out by the Working Group."

In a separate report on Demands for Grants on the
Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, the parliamentary panel noted that both National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) and Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) have not received "sufficient funds".
"The committee is constrained to note that the proposed outlays for NRDWP and SBM (G) were Rs 68,786 crore and Rs 43,200 crore, whereas the actual outlays were as low as Rs 38,823 crore and Rs 23,645 crore respectively," it said.
In another report on the Department of Land Resources, the panel said it was "constrained" to note that there was a "huge gap" between planned outlay and actual outlay in the Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) during the 12th plan.

The committee also noted that in programmes like IWMP and Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP), there was reduction to Budget Estimate (BE) to Revised Estimate (RE) particularly during 2013-14 and 2014-15 during the DILRMP and during 2013-14 to 2015-16 under National Land Record Modernisation Programme, though marginal.
The committee said that reduction of agreed outlays under IWMP and reduction of BE to RE both under IWMP and NRLMP largely due to unspent balance does not augur well with the over-all utilisation of funds on the part of the department.
The panel, which also examined the state-wise details of unspent balances under the two schemes noted that as large as Rs 1685 crore under IWMP and Rs 603.20 crore under NRLP during 2015-16 remained unspent.

In its report on the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, the panel expressed dismay over the way Budget requirement of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj has been managed.
"The Committee strongly deprecate the manner in which the entire issue of availability of funds for Panchayats was handled in the light of the roll out of the 14th Finance Commission Grants," it said, commenting on funding to two schemes -- Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) and Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan.