Miffed at the states bypassing the panchyati raj institutions in preparation of the NREGS labour budget, the rural development ministry has asked the state governments to attach a certificate of approval from PRIs failing which the funds will not be released.

“The states were instructed to upload on the NREGA website the certificate of approval of the labour budgets of 2010-11 by the respective gram sabha followed by panchayat samities and zila parishads. It is informed that the further release of funds to your state would be subject to uploading this certificate in case of all your gram panchayats,” NREGA joint secretary Amita Sharma said in a letter dated June 25 to all state secretaries in charge if NREGS.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), unlike any other social welfare scheme, empowers PRIs, assigning a wide-ranging role to them in its implementation. PRIs have been given powers in matter ranging from registering workers to monitoring and social audit of the work. The Act vests powers of planning and implementation (at least 50 percent) with the PRIs and casts an obligation for transparency and accountability on them, especially on the gram panchayat.

However, that does not seem to be happening on the ground. The state governments are sending in their labour budgets (the account of money needed) to the centre without the mandatory approval of the PRIs.

Since NREGS is demand driven scheme, and there is no cap on the money that the state can demand, the approval of the gram panchayats in preparation of the labour budget assumes importance.