‘Cong mismanaged MGNREGA, NDA put it back on track’

The derailed Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is back on tracks. Talking to Millennium Post, Minister of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation Birender Singh said if anyone should claim success for implementation of MGNREGA; it’s the NDA government and not the Congress-UPA.

In an exclusive interview, the minister said: “MGNREGA required a complete transformation as during the UPA rule there was total disenchantment from the beneficiaries for how the programme was implemented. Repeated scandals related to the programme came up during the Congress regime starting from gram panchayat to higher levels. Complaints regarding delay in payments, duplicity in accounting, even the muster role was fabricated and job cards were not AADHAR-linked. We (the NDA government) corrected all these anomalies.”

“Now, we have made it mandatory that all beneficiaries should link their job cards with their AADHAR ids. As per the new legislation when funds are to be transferred from consolidated funds from the Centre or state, to some individual’s account then for that the AADHAR card is a must. Also muster roll has been completely digitised, that means when a muster roll is now prepared it is immediately uploaded to the main server with all the information. This move has increased the efficiency in monitoring the data and brought in complete transparency in the system. There is almost 94 per cent of e-fund management system being implemented for the muster roll,” said Singh.

The minister said: “The entire process of transfer of wages to the beneficiary’s account is now being done through Direct Benefit Transfer (BDT). This was tested as a pilot project in Kerala where it was implemented from January 1, 2016, and the results were very successful. After that, now, it is applicable in 11 states and in another 6 months it should be operational in the entire country.”

As per the ministry’s latest data on MGNREGA there have been phenomenal achievements under the programme in the NDA regime. 

“For the financial year 2015-16 the programme has witnessed highest ever personday generation (235 crore person days) in the last five years. Since the inception of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) the highest expenditure on MGNREGA in 2015-16 has been Rs 43,068 crore. National Electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS) has been introduced in 10 states under the programme. E-muster roll system has been made fully operational. Also 95 per cent of wages have gone directly to the accounts of the MGNREGA workers in 2015-16,” said the data.