New Delhi, May 5: With the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) finding irregularities in implementation of its flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the Government has decided to stop direct cash payment to the beneficiaries and open bank accounts to transfer their wages.

“We will not make payment if the beneficiary does not have a bank account. We have opened 1.45 crore accounts so far. We will cover 3.37 crore beneficiaries very soon,” Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said here on Monday.

The minister, who was speaking after inaugurating the National Consultation on NREGA, said the move would help check any irregularity in the implementation of the programme.

The CAG had stated that there was no system for financial management and tracking in the NREGS. “In case of direct payment, there is a lot of scope for misappropriation. There are even instances of money being paid in the name of dead men,” Singh said.

The Government would also start health insurance and life insurance schemes for the beneficiaries of NREGS, he said. “Now, we are implementing the scheme in all 600 districts of the country. So the number of beneficiaries would increase to five crore and all of them would be given insurance cover,” Singh said.

Inaugurating the consultation, Singh said the NREGS has been successful in the first phase of its implementation and the number of beneficiaries under this scheme is three times more than in the employment schemes started by past Governments. About 140 crore mandays could be created in 330 districts where it was implemented before its expansion to the entire country on April 1, he said.