Act against officials if MGNREGA job cards were fake: Activists -Governance Now

Act against officials if MGNREGA job cards were fake: Activists

If as many as one crore cards were found out to be fake, how come the government hasn’t implicated a single government official? an activist asked.

Pranita Kulkarni | April 20, 2017 | New Delhi

#Nikhil Dey #cancelled #fake #job cards #Annie Raja #MGNREGA #Ankita Aggarwal

Action must be taken against government officials if over one crore Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) job cards have been cancelled for being fake, said activists.

On Wednesday, a panel of experts led by social activist Nikhil Dey condemned the “anti-poor” stance and accused the central government of undermining MGNREGA.

The panel raised a number of issues regarding the implementation of the MGNREGA that ensures employment to the rural population following media reports of cancellation of close to one crore “fake” job cards.

Along with Dey, Annie Raja, general secretary, National federation of Indian women, Jayati Ghosh, professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Kavita Srivastav, convener, Right to Food Campaign, Kamayani Swamy of Central Employment Guarantee Council and researcher Ankita Aggarwal were part of the panel that addressed the media on Wednesday.

Questioning the government’s decision to cancel the job cards, Aggarwal said, “It’s clearly stipulated in the act that no job card can be cancelled unless it is found to be duplicate, or if the entire household has permanently migrated or in case of the death of the beneficiaries. They are not supposed to delete even the inactive cards – the cards which have not been used for more than three years. If as many as one crore cards were found out to be fake, how come the government hasn’t implicated a single government official?”

Aggarwal said that the reasons mentioned for deletion of job cards in most of the reports are “other” and “unwilling to work”, which is a clear violation of the act.

Dey raised the question of huge wage arrears of the workers, who have completed work allotted to them under the scheme. “The complete onus of this falls on the centre, since state governments have no role to play in making the payments. They’re supposed to make an assessment of the required amount of the funds in their labour budget, but it’s the centre that directly deposits the money in the workers’ accounts,” he said.

Ghosh said that the assessment of the state governments under-represents the need for the allocation for MGNREGA and the centre further reduces the already conservative budget presented by the states.

“When the government is taking pride in making the highest budgetary allocation to the scheme, they need to realise that it is not a present from the government. The law states that where there is demand, the government has to provide wages. And, the central government has continuously underprovided for the scheme. Almost one fourth of its budgetary allocation is the pending amount from the last year, which is whopping Rs 11, 000 crore,” she said.

Raja criticised the government’s proposal to link Aadhaar to bank accounts under MGNREGA. “In principle, I am against Aadhaar. The supreme court has repeatedly told the government that Aadhaar cannot be made compulsory. The government data itself says that 54 percent workers do not possess Aadhaar. They will be denied their legal right to demand work as they don’t possess Aadhaar,” she said.

Comments

Other News

AI: Code, Control, Conquer

India today stands at a critical juncture in the area of artificial intelligence. While the country is among the fastest adopters of AI in the world, it remains heavily reliant on technologies developed elsewhere. This paradox, experts warn, cannot persist if India seeks technological sovereignty.

RBI pauses to assess inflation risks, policy transmission

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has begun the new fiscal year with a calibrated pause, keeping the repo rate unchanged at 5.25 per cent in its April Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. The decision, taken unanimously, reflects a shift from aggressive policy action to cautious observation after a signi

New pathways for tourism growth

Traditionally, India’s tourism policy has been based on three main components: the number of visitors, building tourist attractions and providing facilities for tourists. Due to the increase in climate-related issues and environmental destruction that occurred over previous years, policymakers have b

Is the US a superpower anymore?

On April 8, hours after warning that “a whole civilisation will die tonight,” US president Donald Trump, exhibiting his unique style of retreating from high-voltage brinkmanship, announced that he agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran. The weekend talks in Islamabad have failed and the futur

Machines communicate, humans connect

There is a moment every event professional knows—the kind that arrives without warning, usually an hour before the curtain rises. Months of meticulous planning are in place. And then comes the call: “We’ll also need a projector. For the slides.” No email

Why India is entering a ‘stagflation lite’ phase

India’s macroeconomic narrative is quietly shifting—from a rare “Goldilocks” equilibrium of stable growth and contained inflation to a more fragile phase where external shocks are beginning to dominate domestic policy outcomes. The numbers still look reassuring at first glance: GDP