Except for the two centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) of MGNREGA and Backward Regions Grant Fund, none of the 150 CSS adequately provide a role for panchayati raj institutions (PRI).
As per the expert committee on leveraging PRIs for efficient delivery of public goods and services, headed by Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Mani Shankar Aiyar, Panchayat Raj has been seriously suborned by establishing parallel bodies under CSS that are neither embedded in the system nor have organic links to PRIs.
There are 2.5 lakh panchayats with 32 lakh representatives of which more than 12 lakh are women. The Central spending on CSS has increased 25 times over the period of economic reforms from R7,500 crore to nearly R3 lakh crore now.
On states ensuring devolution to panchayats, Aiyar said that Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala were ranked best even as the CAG, on Tuesday, found irregularities in the way MGNREGA was implemented in Maharashtra.
Downplaying the CAG’s report on the functioning of MGNREGA, especially in Maharashtra and Karnataka, Aiyar said it was more of an ?auditing and accounting exercise?.
?CAG is not taking into account the actual level of devolution. What they are looking at is whether the funds are being spent correctly or not,? he said while releasing the expert committee report.
The former panchayati raj minister said the report was not an investigation of the way the system operates though it is possible that, in these two states, they have been able to discover accounting and auditing errors which has to be “corrected”
?It is not that panchyats are responsible for misuse of money. There are other players who could be involved as well,? he added.
However, he did find fault the way the ambitious MGNREGA programme has been designed, providing less number of days of work to the intended beneficiacies.