MGNREGA appointments under scanner as Govt mulls axing many

Srinagar, Aug 11: Authorities in the state have decided to disengage the illegal appointees under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

An official of Rural Development Department said hundreds of contractual appointments have been made under the scheme.

Most of them, as per the official, have been appointed on “political recommendations” in contravention of the rules.

“Most of the appointees are affiliated with political parties. The successive governments were not acting on complaints against them. The present administration led by Governor N N Vohra took a serious note of it and decided to disengage them,” the official said.

Secretary Rural Development Department, Sheetal Nanda, has written to the authorities concerned to “discontinue” engagements made under MGNREGA in “contravention to rules, norms guidelines in vogue and without following due procedure regarding”.

The disengagement, as per the, communiqué was to “streamline and rationalise” the existing contractual engagements made under the scheme.

The district development commissioners have been asked to submit the report within 15 days. There are also complaints about misuse of centrally-sponsored schemes same as MGNREGA.

The central government has withheld funds several times in some schemes after it was found that there had been no checks in their implementation.

“The union government has expressed concern over misusing of schemes in the state and the RDD was told to give details about fund utilisation to the central government,” a source in RDD said.

The source said the state government was told to do re-verification of job cards under MGNREGA so that deserving ones get benefit. “The fake job cards were issued to politically-influential families over the years.

The central government has directed state several times for re-verification of job cards after complaints about the fake job scam and non-card holds were engaged in the works.

The government has also decided for re-verification of job cards,” he said. Under MGNREGA, the central government was providing Rs 900 crore per annum to J&K, but the state has been least benefitted since the inception of the scheme.