The much talked about Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) providing rural employment of minimum 100 days has few takers in Jammu and Kashmir with most of the districts having fund utlisation level of 20 per cent or little more when just few months are left for the financial year to be over. The reason is very simple; the remunerations paid under the job-scheme has failed to attract the labour class. Rs 121 offered daily is too pecuniary compared to the market rate of Rs 300 a labour gets. The central ministry has also pointed out that large gap between the projections and achievements of labour budgeting indicates that the processes like identification, planning of works, consolidation of plans, and preparation of appropriate shelf of projects, implementation of these projects through PRIs and their regular monitoring has not been fully adhered to. But in the face of this all, there are some cases of bungling in the MNREGA works which have come to the forefront at district level. One such case has been reported from Udhampur District. The residents of village Chiryai have alleged large scale bungling in the execution of works in Panchayat Dhanoo. The villagers alleged that the works shown as executed and paid in the Panchayat Dhanoo were only on paper and have not been executed on ground. They alleged that some of the work has been shown completed and the Sarpanch of the village has accordingly issued completion certificate but in reality the work has not been executed on the ground. They further alleged that the names of Panchs, Sarpanchs and Numbardars appear repeatedly in the muster roll. This is the case when funds are not in shortage and the release of central share to the State depends largely on an agreed and realistic labour budget and how quickly and efficiently State is able to utilise the funds available with it and how it addresses institutional/ programmatic issues is what matters for the success of the works.
