MGNREGA: Allegations of corruption, threats, TMC interference in Bengal

Pampa Chanda, an MGNREGA booth supervisor from Jara village in Chandrakona-I Block in West Bengal’s Medinipur West district, faced pressure from some Trinamool Congress block members to hand over a list of job cardholders.

There are more than 300 job cardholders within her jurisdiction. The list can help manipulate job cards to swindle wage money of about 6,500 man-days and deprive daily jobs to many. Last month, she allegedly got a death threat for not complying with the demands of the local leaders.

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However, not everyone can muster the courage to stand up to such pressure.

Gopal Mandal from Gosaba in South 24 Parganas district did not get any job under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme for several months because the enrolment for work in the area is allegedly done as per the whims and fancies of the ruling TMC leaders.

Misuse of funds

As per the scheme’s norms, a job cardholder can directly approach the panchayat or other implementing agencies for work and is entitled to get at least 100 days of work. But this is not followed often, leading to misuse of the fund.

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Paschimbanga Khet Mazdoor Samity (PBKMS), an independent trade union that works for the protection of decent wages and other rights of agricultural workers, has alleged that the scheme has become a major source of corruption due to lack of transparency in job allotment.

Irregularities in job allotments

The scheme is plagued by manipulation in job cards and misappropriation of funds with the use of fake muster rolls, alleged Shovan Patua of the PBKMS.

Irregularities in the MGNREGA scheme are not restricted to Bengal, as has been found by the special monitoring team of the Union Rural Development Ministry. The Ministry, after receiving several complaints of irregularities from various states, sent special teams for field visits and surveys in 90 districts in 11 states, including West Bengal.

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The Ministry, in a letter dated March 11, asked these states to submit action taken reports within a month. Apart from Bengal, the states which have been asked to submit the report by the Ministry’s Deputy Secretary Sanjay Kumar are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

Apart from irregularities in job allotments, misappropriation of materials, poor quality of work, non-compliance of social audit norms, payments made against fictitious work and non-appointment of ombudsperson in most districts are some of the issues flagged by the Ministry in its 59-page letters to the erring states, said an official of the West Bengal Panchayat and Rural Development (P&RD) Department.

Non-appointment of ombudspersons

The Centre warned the states that funds would not be released from the next financial year if ombudspersons are not appointed by the states in at least 80 per cent of their districts where the scheme is being implemented. As per the data available with the Rural Development Ministry, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Punjab, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal had not appointed a single ombudsperson in any district as of August 6, 2021.

The official of the West Bengal P&RD department said that since last August, the state has appointed four ombudspersons out of 23 districts.

Except for Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Odisha, the compliance is poor in all other states, per the Ministry’s data.

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Similarly, the figures available with the Ministry show dismal compliance with social audits. Under the MGNREGA Act, every gram panchayat should conduct an audit at least once every six months in a financial year. No audit has been done in any of the gram panchayats in Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal in the 2021-22 financial year, it has been found.

“Bottlenecks in the smooth implementation of the scheme such as delay in payment of wages, non-adherence to the provisions of the Act, delays in compensation and unemployment allowance, issues pertaining to the irregularities and malpractices concerning with the job cards, non-timely release of skilled and material components of funds, slack approach of gram panchayats, non-holding of regular social audits and poor monitoring system of the scheme came to the fore,” pointed out the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj in its report presented in February after field visits to some states.

Unemployment allowance not paid

The committee said it was also “appalled” at the “blatant violation” of the provision of unemployment allowance mandated under the scheme. As per the provision of the MGNREGA, if an applicant for employment under the scheme is not provided employment within 15 days, he/she shall be entitled to a daily unemployment allowance.

The Ministry’s data revealed “zero” amount was paid as unemployment allowance as of November 5 of the 2021-22 fiscal year.

“Rampant prevalence of fake job cards” is one of the issues afflicting the implementation of the scheme, the parliamentary panel observed in its report.

“The committee, therefore, strongly recommends the Department of Rural Development to keep a hawkish eye of surveillance over the issue of job cards and monitor each aspect associated with job cards with increased seriousness,” the report added.