EMN
Dimapur, November 10
The Bharatiya Janata Party has asked the chief minister of the state to take corrective measures to check what they implied were anomalies in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS). The state’s BJP unit issued a press release on Tuesday stating suggestions “to meet the 10 % state’s share.”
A problem, according to the political party, was the state’s inability to meet its share. According to the BJP, ‘reliable sources from the Ministry of Rural Development’ are said to have reported that the ‘main reasons of fund constraint is the inability of the state government of Nagaland to contribute the 10% state matching share when the Central ratio share of 90% is readily available.’
“It is learnt that 40% of the total fund were deducted from the VDBs all over the state in the previous release for the purpose of administrative charges and management costs. The party is of the view that this amount could have been adjusted for State share which could be recovered later,” the BJP stated.
“The grant-in-aid allocated to the VDBs are from the state side which is a huge amount granted annually to all the villages. If the state is constraint of fund, then this amount could have been utilized as state share of 10% which can be adjusted later on. Grass-root people will only be happy to sacrifice 20-30% to gain 70-80 %.”
NREGA, which was renamed as the “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act” (MGNREGA) on 1 April 2008, has been playing a vital role in Nagaland state in the rural sectors, the party said. “It aims to ensure livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household where adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work,” the BJP stated in its press release.
Another aim of MGNREGA is to create durable assets (such as roads, canals, ponds, wells). Employment is to be provided within 5 km of an applicant’s residence, and minimum wages are to be paid. If work is not provided within 15 days of applying, applicants are entitled to an unemployment allowance.
“Thus, employment under MGNREGA is a legal entitlement. However, when we look at our state Nagaland, the story is quite different. In 2014, wages were released only for 10 to 14 days and for the year 2015 also, wages for only for 3-4 days out of 100 days are released till date,” the party stated.
According to the organization, ‘reliable sources from the Ministry of Rural Development’ are said to have reported that the ‘main reasons of fund constraint is the inability of the state government of Nagaland to contribute the 10% state matching share when the Central ratio share of 90% is readily available.’
In the North East, out of eight states, Tripura and Sikkim are ‘doing the best by getting maximum benefit due to its prompt contribution in its state share.’
Replying to a debate on President’s Address in the Lok Sabha in February 2015 ‘over rumors that MGNREGA scheme was being stopped,’ Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi had asserted that MGNREGA would continue with “honour and dignity,” the BJP’s press release stated.
Likewise, during his budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also said that the central government was committed to supporting employment through the MGNREGA and that he would ensure that no poor citizen would be left unemployed.
The BJP said further that on November 14, 2015, two officials from the Ministry of Rural Development– Dr Silpa Pandey, Research Officer of the UNDP in-charge Nagaland MGNREGA and Prasana V Salian, Assistant Commissioner of the MGNREGA–visited the state officially and inspected various MGNREGA schemes across the state.
Only after the intervention of Dr. Silpa, funds meant of VDBs amounting to Rupees 123 crore across the state were released, the BJP said.
“Taking serious note of the above, the BJP Nagaland would like to appeal to the honorable chief minister of Nagaland to kindly intervene and take corrective measures with the concerned authority in the interest of the State in general and the grassroots people of Nagaland in particular,” the press release added. The note was appended by K James Vizo, general secretary and spokesman of the state’s BJP.
