Ministry refutes NCAER report on NREGA implementation

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New Delhi: A day later when a National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) report highlighted flaws in the implementation of UPA government’s mega National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the ministry of rural development has said the report is ‘half backed and does not reflect any ground reality’.

FE has also learnt that Wajahat Habibullah, central information commissioner, had recently written to deputy chairman Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia regarding the need of uploading all information, regarding various development schemes supported by the commission, on the public domain as done under NREGA.

“One area in which this recourse has already been successfully adopted is in the implementation of NREGA and it would be ideal if the transparency and accountability demanded by the law can be speedily replicated to all major development initiatives financed by Planning Commission funds,” Habibullah wrote in his letter to Ahluwalia (FE possesses a copy of the letter).

In response to Habibullah’s letter, secretary Plan panel Subas Panis recently circulated a letter to all ministries that use commission’s fund to follow the model adopted under NREGA for sharing all the relevant information with the public. “Public authorities under the Right To Information Act, 2005, are mandated to maintain all its record duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and form which facilitates the right to information,” Pani wrote in the letter.

Habibullah had in his letter to Ahluwalia urged to ensure that all records that are appropriate to be computerised within a reasonable time, subject to availability of resources and connected via network all over the country to ensure access.

Meanwhile, while highlighting factual inaccuracy in NCAER/PIF report, which stated that funds under NREGA are being allocated to districts rather than state governments, ministry of rural development secretary Rita Sharma said the Centre has stopped allocating funds to districts from last one year. “We have stopped giving funds to districts so that the state governments can have their priorities while allocating funds to districts,” Sharma told FE.

Criticising the report, Sharma said all the allegation of forged muster rolls and payment could be checked at the dedicated websites to ascertain facts. “We have uploaded details of jobs cards on the websites for public knowledge,” she said.