Transcript By Shri Niten Chandra, Director, Ministry Of Rural Development

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(NREGA) 2005
An Act to provide for the
enhancement of livelihood
security of the households
in rural areas of the country
by providing at least one
hundred days of guaranteed
wage employment in every
financial year to every
household whose adult
members volunteer to do
unskilled manual work
Strengthening the Right to Information
Proactive Disclosure under RTI- Problems & Perspectives
Niten Chandra, Director
Ministry Of Rural Development
Presentation Structure
NREGA Status
Proactive Disclosure, Social Audits, Complaints
and Grievance Redressal
New Initiatives
Future direction and new initiatives
Good Practices
NREGA Objectives
Primary
Supplement employment opportunities
Auxiliary
Regenerate natural resource base for
sustainable rural livelihoods
o Water conservation & water harvesting
o Drought Proofing (afforestation & tree plantation)
o Irrigation canals, micro & minor irrigation works
o Works individual land of SC/ST/BPL/IAY/ Land
reform beneficiaries/ Small & Marginal farmers
o Renovation of traditional water bodies
o Land development
o Flood control & protection, drainage
o Rural connectivity
Process Outcomes
Strengthen grass root processes of
democracy
 Infuse transparency and accountability
in governance
3
NREGA National Overview
(FY 2006-07)
200 Districts
Employment provided to households:
PERSONDAYS [in Crore]
Total:
SCs:
STs:
Women:
Others:
Average personday per household
FINANCIAL DETAIL
Budget Outlay (In Rs Crore):
Central Release (In Rs Crore):
Total available fund [including OB]: In Rs. Crore.
Expenditure (In Rs. Crore.)
Average wage per day
WORKS DETAIL
Total works taken up (In Lakhs):
Works completed:
Water conservation:
Provision of Irrigation facility to land owned by
SC/ST/ BPL and IAY benificiaries:
Rural Connectivity:
Land Development:
Any other activity:
(FY 2007-08)
330 Districts
(FY 2008-09)
615 Districts
(FY 2009-10)
upto August, 09
619 Districts
2.10 Crore
3.39 Crore
4.49 Crore
3.04 Crore
90.5
22.95 [25%]
32.98 [36%]
36.79 [41%]
34.56 [38%]
43 Days
143.59
39.36 [27%]
42.07 [29%]
61.15 [43%]
62.16 [43%]
42 Days
216.01
63.39 [29%]
54.78 [25%]
103.41 [48%]
97.84 [45%]
48 Days
118.54
35.60 [30%]
26.21 [22%]
60.62 [51%]
56.73 [48%]
39 Days
11300
8640.85
12073.55
8823.35
Rs. 65
12000
12610.39
19,305.81
15856.89
Rs. 75
30000
29939.60
37483.94
27137.88
Rs. 84
39100
15219.14
26831.21
14398.64
Rs. 88
8.35
3.87
4.51 [54%]
0.81 [10%]
17.88
8.22
8.73 [49 %]
2.63 [15 %]
27.2
12.09
12.50 [46%]
5.56 [20%]
23.37
5.28
11.60 [49%]
4.34 [19%]
1.80 [21%]
0.89 [11%]
0.34 [4%]
3.08 [17 %]
2.88 [16%]
0.56 [3%]
4.91 [18%]
3.97 [15%]
0.25 [1 %]
3.98 [17%]
3.23 [14%]
0.22 [1%]
NREG Act: Pro-active Disclosure
Citizen Information Board
NREGA Information on Wall of Gram Panchayat
Muster Rolls at NREGA Worksite
MIS for Transparency & Accountability
Management Information System (MIS)
To bring transparency in the whole system
Provide single window interface for all the stake holders of
NREGA
Track transfer of funds to various implementing agency
(sanction order, financial releases)
Prepare inventory of works/assets created under NREGA for
future planning.
Register grievances of workers.
Details of works and workers
Separate pages for approximately 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats, 6465
Blocks, 619 Districts and 34 States & UTs.
Job Cards & Muster Rolls in Public Domain (http://nrega.nic.in)
S NO.
Upto
Month
1
JUN, 08
2
SEP, 08
3
DEC, 08
4
MAR, 09
5
MAY, 09
6
Mid SEP, 09
Number of Job Number of Muster
Cards
Rolls
(Since inception) (Since inception)
3.0 Crores
4.9 Crores
5.7 Crores
6.0 Crores
6.9 Crores
8.0 Crores
0.44 Crores
0.78 Crores
1.06 Crores
1.18 Crores
1.60 Crores
2.10 Crores
 Daily 40-50 thousand Muster Rolls are uploaded on the website by the States.
Social Audits
Amendments in the Act to provide procedure for social audits
• Social audits to be conducted once in six months
• Prior planning and announcement of audit
• DPC & PO responsible for audit (planning & availability of
documents)
• Formation of Social Audit Committee (workers & 1/3 women)
• Documents made available 15 days prior to SAC for verification
• Public representatives and concerned officials to attend
• SAC to read out findings, ATR
• Minutes recorded
Women at a Social Audit in Rajasthan
Grievance Redressal Mechanism
Grievance
Redressal
Mechanism
Complaints
Penalty
Provision
•Amendment to the Act was made to provide procedure for effective redressal of
complaints and enforcing Section 25
Helplines & Grievance Redressal Rules
•Helplines for receipt of complaints & forwarding to state/districts
-Set up at Ministry
-States- A.P, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, H.P, J&K, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala,
Orissa, Sikkim, U.P, Uttarakhand , W.B, Goa
•Grievance Redressal Rules
Formulated by Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, H.P, J&K, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Nagaland,
Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand
14
Financial Inclusion
Amendment to sub-section I of Section 29 (Feb 2009)
7.75 crore NREGA bank and post office accounts have been opened
-Separation of monitoring agency from payment agency
-Encourages saving habits
-Money directly in the hand of workers
-Individual accounts in the name of women
Payment through Business Correspondent Models using latest
ICT technologies Smart Card & bio-metrics, ATMs
Challenges
-Poor coverage of bank and post office accounts
-Delay in payments
Performance Feedback Sources
Statutory Mechanisms
•CAG (Audit of 68 districts in 128 blocks and 513 GPs) 2006-07
•Central Employment Guarantee Council
Internal Mechanisms
•MPRs & MIS
•Performance Review Meetings
•Area Officers for field verifications
•State, district, block level inspections
•Helplines, Complaints
External & Independent Mechanisms
National Level Monitors
• Studies commissioned in 2006-07 (5 studies, 28 districts, 11 states)
•
2007-08 (6 studies, 33 districts, 11 states)
•Professional Institutional Network (18 institutions, 18 states, 60 districts)
Major Challenges
•Lack of adequate technical and administrative manpower at
block and GP levels (full time dedicated Programme Officers,
administrative and technical assistants)
•Lack of Awareness
•Non-maintenance of records like job cards, dated receipts,
employment registers, measurement books, asset registers,
Muster Rolls
•Non conduct of social audits
•Lack of adequate monitoring mechanisms
•Incorrect/non-standardized reporting of physical and financial
achievements
•Instances of rent seeking and misuse of authority (inflated
estimates, bogus muster rolls, fund diversion)
President’s Address to Parliament – 4 June 2009
… increasing transparency and public accountability of NREGA by
enforcing social audit and ensuring grievance redressal by setting up
district level ombudsman.
...To ensure transparency and public accountability, independent
monitoring and grievance redressal mechanisms will be set up at the
district level …
New Initiatives
Social Audits
•Issue of instructions to the State Governments for enforcement of the new
social audit provisions under NREGA
• Organization of meeting of District Programme Coordinators at the State
level for drawing up action plan for social audit
•Social Audit Calendar and monitoring of audits online
-Details of action taken uploaded
-Follow up action can be tracked down to the Gram Panchayat level
• Thirty seven National Level Monitor were deputed to 37 districts in 15
states for special monitoring of the social audit campaign initiated by the
Ministry.
•Currently 89% of the Gram Panchayats are being covered under social
audits
Ombudsman
Instructions under Section 27 issued on establishment of district
level Ombudsman to States (within 3 months of September 7, 2009)
1
Appointment
•State Government to appoint Ombudsman based on the
recommendations of Selection Committee.
•Selection Committee will consist of Chief Secretary of State ,
Representative of Union Ministry of Rural Development,
eminent Civil Society person nominated by Ministry of Rural
Development and Secretary of Department in State
Government dealing with NREGA as Member-Covenor
2
Qualification
•Persons with 20 years of experience in Public Administration
•Should not be more than 65 years
•No member of political party will be eligible
•He should be physically active
•Prior publication of panel should be done in the official website
of the State for receiving comments within 30 days
•Selection Committee should dispose of objections within 30
days
•Anonymous comments and objections should not be considered
3
Tenure & Removal
•Tenure will be 2 years
•Tenure can be extended by one year based on performance or
up to 65 years of age
•No reappointment
•State Government can remove if unsatisfactory performance
and recommendation of Selection Committee
4
Autonomy
•Ombudsman will be independent of State and Central
Government
5
Remuneration
•A compensation of Rs.500/-Per sitting
6
Location of Office
•District Headquarters
•One or more Ombudsman in each District
7
Office Support
•DRDA to provide Technical and Administrative support or
any other body specified by the State Government
8
Appraisal
•Selection Committee to appraise the performance regularly
every year
9
Powers
•Lodge FIRs against the erring parties
•Direct redressal,disciplinary and punitive actions
•Inititate proceedings in the event of any circumstances that may
cause any grievance
10 Disposal of
Complaints
•Ombudsman will issue notice to NREGA authority for appearance
•Case will be disposed by passing appropriate direction once the facts are
admitted
•Award should be based on evidence and incompliance with NREG Act,
instructions issued by State or Central Government
•Copy of award will be to parties
•Costs may be imposed in case of false, malicious and vexatious complaints
•NREGA authority will comply with award within one month or pay penalty
at Rs.50 per day of delay
•The Penalty should not exceed the amount stipulated as fine in Section 25
of NREG Act
•Monthly report should be sent to Chief Secretary and Secretary in charge
of NREGA
•In case of Corruption the Ombudsman will forward the matter to take up
criminal prosecution
•A representative of Programme Officer/ District Programme Coordinator
may appear in cases where they are party
•Programme Officer/ District Programme Coordinator shall appear only
when a proceeding is taken up
•All cases that do not involve complicated questions of fact or law should
be disposed within 15 days
•Other cases may be disposed within 45 days
11 Appeal
•There shall be no appeal against the award of Ombudsman
•The award of Ombudsman shall be final
NREGA with UIDA
NREGA partnership with Unique Identification
Development Authority of India (UIDA) has been
initiated. The database of NREGA will be utilized by the
UID Authority to expedite the development of the
identification system for the residents.