Thaindian News

Lucknow, Sep 23 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has not asked for any report about the implementation of National Rural Employment Scheme (NREGS) in Uttar Pradesh, a state government spokesperson said here Wednesday.
Refuting media reports that Manmohan Singh had sought details of the execution of NREGS in the state, the spokesman said: “The Union rural development ministry had simply emphasised on the need for carrying out a social audit of the implementation of the scheme.”

“Media reports about the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) seeking information in this regard were totally baseless and false,” he said.

“No letter has been received from the PMO by the state rural development department.”

A flagship scheme of the central government, the NREGS guarantees 100 days’ employment to one member of a family below the poverty line.

Claiming “total transparency” in the implementation of NREGS, the official said: “The Uttar Pradesh government has been very particular about digging out irregularities in the implementation of NREGS. FIRs have been lodged against 37 people for committing irregularities and about 31 officers have been suspended or awarded other punishments for their lapses.”

As for the union rural development ministry’s letter regarding a social audit, the spokesman pointed out that such letters were sent to all states.

According to him, “Social audit of more than 26,000 gram panchayats had been carried out so far by the state’s rural development department and a calendar has already been prepared for carrying out cent percent social audit of all the gram panchayats in the entire state”.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mayawati’s government now proposes a monthly ‘NREGA Day’ at the tehsil (block, sub-district) level on the first Wednesday of every month to ensure quick disposal of problems faced by the target beneficiaries.

Significantly, as many as 1,077 complaints were received on the first NREGA Day held in September. Of these, 411 cases were disposed of immediately. FIRs were lodged in two cases while warnings and adverse entries were given in 15 cases, besides three suspensions.

Against an allocation of Rs.7,380 crore in the central budget, the state has received a sum of Rs.3,286 crore so far. However, the state machinery has not been able to create more than 10 crore man-days with an expenditure of just Rs.1,047 crore over the first five months of the current financial year..