Body To Monitor Job Scheme Sought

The body should have jurisdiction over implementing bodies like the district rural development agency (DRDA) and the zilla parishad, the committee said in its second report on employment and financial assistance provided to SCs and STs under the employment scheme.

The committee said DRDAs were over-loaded with a multitude of programmes to be implemented with no other organisation to support the step-wise implementation of programmes under the yojna. The ministry of rural areas & employment should streamline the number of sub-schemes to be implemented by the DRDAs and the Union government should depute some officials to oversee the work carried out under the yojna, it said.

 

Jawahar Rojgar Yojna is implemented as a centrally-sponsored scheme on a cost-sharing basis between the Centre and the state in the ratio of 80:20. It is targeted at people living below the poverty line, with thrust on SCs, STs and freed bonded labourers. Thirty per cent of the employment under the yojna is reserved for women.

Referring to the intensified yojna, in operation in 120 backward districts of the country since 1993-94, the committee has recommended that a list of SC/ST beneficiaries be prepared and separate allocation of resources be made for these target groups.

It has also called for the creation of a special cell to monitor the utilisation of funds.

The committee said the Centre must devise a mechanism to see whether the states release their share of 20 per cent of the fund. It must ask for utilisation certificate of the total fund from the state, thereby doubly ensuring the release of the state's share as well.

The committee has expressed unhappiness over reports of irregularities and misuse of funds in the implementation of the yojna and has rejected the contention of the ministry of rural areas & employment that state governments, being the implementing authority, were responsible for the lapses.

The committee said all reports of misuse of funds, received directly by the Union government, must be investigated by the Centre as the ultimate accountability lay with the Centre.

The committee pointed out that the Centre must not sit satisfied merely with the action taken comments of the state governments and must take up fact finding missions to audit and set right the drawbacks to do justice to the beneficiaries.

Referring to the unsatisfactory functioning of the food-for-work component of the wage system, the committee said the matter should be reviewed to give an option to the workers to get wages fully in cash or partly in cash and partly in foodgrain owing to the variation in the kinds of foodgrain.

The committee also asked the government to investigate the cases of non-payment of wages and take action against the defaulting officers instead of just withholding the grants to the states concerned. Ultimately, it is the common man