NREGS delay costs Telangana 884 cr

NREGS delay costs Telangana 884 cr
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The Centre has found that the state government has to pay Rs 884 crore to the workers under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as delay-compensation for not providing work within 15 days after receiving their applications for it.

Hyderabad: The Centre has found that the state government has to pay Rs 884 crore to the workers under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as delay-compensation for not providing work within 15 days after receiving their applications for it.

The observation has been made in the agenda of the Programme Review Committee meeting held by the Union Rural Development department. The department said that the State Government has to pay Rs 884.12 crore as compensation towards delay.

The NREG Act says that the states should pay delay-compensation to the job-seekers of the scheme if they were not provided work within 15 days after application is made. However, the state has not been making payments since the launch of the programme. This condition has been imposed to see that the states did not neglect implementation of the scheme.

The Act says that the delay-compensation increases along with delay. The delay-compensation ranges from 20 per cent of the one-day wage to 75 per cent of it per day, depending on the delay.

The Union Rural Development department noted that the State has more than 6.7 lakh incomplete works among the works taken till financial year 2016-17. There are 71,459 works with nil expenditure since inception.

There are 34,864 works with only material expenditure. The State has committed to complete all works till FY 2015-16 by April 30, 2018, works of FY 2016-17 by June 30, 2018 and all works of FY 2017-18 by September 30, 2018. The RD suggested that State Government should take steps to regularly update the job cards. During the recent monitoring visit, it was observed that in many of the cards, photographs of workers and verifying officer’s signature were missing.

The State has been told for installation of Citizen Information Boards at each worksite and share good quality photographs of the CIB with the Ministry. The State needs to ensure timely updation and maintenance of the seven registers of NREG scheme. The State has 30 per cent accounts in banks and the remaining 70 per cent in post offices. Out of the total 58.5 lakh active workers, the account details of only 48.35 lakh have been shared in NREGASoft.

The State Government should ensure 100 per cent updation of data in NREGASoft latest by April 15, 2018. The Centre observed in the agenda that in 2017-18 (so far) 85.64 per cent of pay orders for wage payments have been made within 15 days. The state may continue to monitor this on time and ensure that no musters are pending for generation of pay orders beyond 15 days of its closure. As on March 12, 2018, there are 6,932 musters which are pending for generation of pay orders for more than 15 days.

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