Pilot project launched in Lambagaon block in Kangra district; move aims to check corruption,delay in payments,tardy progress The functioning of agencies involved in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) schemes will be under close watch of top government officials,including deputy commissioners,on real-time basis in Himachal Pradesh. The objective is to check corruption,tardy progress of work,fudging of master rolls,or delay in the release of payments to job card holders by panchayats. The hill state,rated as one of the best performing states in the implementation of Central projects,will have a Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled system for online monitoring of the projects undertaken by panchayats. Lambagaon a development block in Kangra district has been chosen for introduction of the system. Online tracking of the work for planning,monitoring and impact evaluations will take place at all 15 panchayats in the block. The entire data of the panchayats,including watersheds,roads,agriculture land,forest cover and boundaries,are already available online. Kangra is one of the biggest districts of Himachal,with a population of 13.39 lakh spread over these 15 development blocks. The literacy rate is almost 85 per cent and agriculture is the mainstay of its economy. Because of the states lone agriculture university at Palampur,the district remains at a much advantageous position. In all,four blocks are considered for introduction of the GPS-enabled monitoring of MGNREGA,but only Lambagaon will be taken up first on pilot basis. The Himachal Agriculture University will be actively associated with the project,which,if successful,will be adopted in all 15 blocks and maybe later in the entire state,if the government so decides, says Deputy Commissioner R S Gupta. Panchrukhi,Bhawarna and Dharamsala are the three other blocks for which the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) has already conducted the preliminary exercise. The district has a budget of Rs 226 crore under the MGNREGA for the current year Rs 184 crore more than the previous year. In all,the state has received a funding of Rs 900 crore under the Act. This was the highest ever grant for Himachal. But some precious time was lost this year due to panchayat elections and the prolonged monsoon earlier, says R N Batta,Director,Rural Development and Panchayati Raj. To put the identified schemes and works on fast track,the government has fixed February 6 as the date for gram sabha meetings,to take stock of the pending work and draw up new strategies to clear the backlog. Lambagaon experience could be worth monitoring for rolling out future measures under this flagship programme, opines Batta. The implementation of MGNREGA in some of the states have become a source of corruption,raising concerns in the Government of India. While the state governments in Gujarat,Rajasthan and Maharashtra have introduced a slew of measures to make the functioning transparent and quicken its pace,the Centre,too,have hinted at certain steps,including GPS-enabled tracking system,to plug loopholes.
