Past goof up dents 2010 NREGS fund in IE
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, April 12 2010: As a spill-over effect of the anomalies committed at the initial stage of NREGS implementation in Imphal East district, an amount of Rs 18 crores has been diverted from the total amount sanctioned by the Government of India for the year 2009-10 towards making up deficit wages for the year 2008-09 .

According to information received from the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Imphal East, the central sponsored scheme was launched in Imphal East district in April 2008 .

As per guidelines of the scheme, work programmes for community welfare projects like construction of irrigation system, digging community ponds etc should be prepared annually through Panchayats.

Work programmes thus prepared should be produced before the Gram Sabha and the same should be submitted to the DRDA with approval of the Gram Sabha.

A road repaired under the NREGS scheme in a hill district of Manipur (File photo)

These annual work programmes should be further forwarded to the Government of India.

The work programmes can be implemented only after receiving the consent of the Government of India.

But all these guidelines were flouted most blatantly in the case of Imphal East district.

People just went ahead with different works after grouping themselves as parties of the MLAs, the Zilla Parishads and the Panchayats.

Even if the MLAs and the Zilla Parishads endorsed the works taken up by people, the work programmes should be first approved by the Gram Sabhas concerned.

On account of such unchecked execution of several works regardless of whether the work programmes were approved by the Gram Sabhas or not, the amount sanctioned by the Government of India for 2008-09 fell short of the total amount of wages by a huge amount.

There was a deficit of around Rs 20 crores, informed the source.

A sum of Rs 100 crores was proposed for NREGS works in Imphal East district for 2008-09 .

But no fund was released because of errors in implementation and excess works.

To cope with this non-availability of fund, an amount of Rs 18 crores was diverted from the Rs 31 crores released for 2009-10 to make up the deficit of the previous year.

During 2009-10, DRDA Imphal East was allocated Rs 58 crores for NREGS works.

Out of this, 31 crores have been released from which Rs 18 crores have been spent in making up the deficit of the previous year.

As such, only Rs 13 crores are available now.

In another revelation, it has been discovered that sanction orders for 107 different works for 2009-10 were issued at the fag end of the financial year last month.

It has become a serious question wether the currently available amount of Rs 13 crores can meet the wages of the job card holders of these 107 works.

Despite various problems, work programmes and utilisation certificates for 2009-10 have been submitted to the Government of India.

But for 2009-10, leave apart utilisation certificates, event reports about where the NREGS works were implemented have not been received.

It is reported that the work programmes which should be collected by the Blocks cannot be furnished due to shortage of manpower.