Hello, Tehri Garhwal is one of the three districts of Uttaranchal where NREGS was implemented in the first phase. It was chosen as a pilot district for conducting social audit funded by the government. Some of my observations were

1. In the operational guidelines of NREGA a family is defined as a nuclear family, with father mother and children.i.e if there are married sons we can consider them to be a separate families. But in the 'act' family is one with blood relations making a joint family a single family. Because of this discrepancy gram panchayat adhikaris are abiding by the more conservative of the definitions and so large joint families in Uttaranchal are considered to be a single household and they cumulatively getting 100 days of livelihood.
2. We changed the schedule of rates. Not by conducting work, time motion studies but uniformly reducing it by 1/8th. In spite of that the technical staff we have recruited under NREGS are finding it difficult to make estimates with these corrections because generally in government we are provided with substandard manpower.

3. There is a provision to keep one labourer exclusively for tending the kids below the age of six.(If there are more than 5). But because we cant anticipate as to how many people are going to get kids to their work place we are not able to make a provision for this in the estimate.

4. Uttaranchal government has made a provision for Rs. 7 per day per kid at work site. But again because we dont know in advance how many kinds would come to the workplace one is not able to make provision.

5. The applications for work is collected by the same entity which provides work too. E.g. gram pradhan or village worker. If he refuses to accept the application and does not give a receipt there is no way you can prove it or remedy it. One should devise such a mechanism that a teacher or a postman or some other person who is not connected with the implementation of the scheme should collect the application

6. there is no upper age limit. At times very old people turn up in the worksite. Because everyday measuring the work is not possible, it leads to a lot of arguments and fights.

7. the amount of documentation is too high. The amount earmarked for administrative expense is too low ( 4% being the function of the expenditure)

8. We have tried to open accounts for the labourers in banks. With all the hype about no frill accounts the banks dont appreciate labourers drawing small amounts of money repeatedly from their accounts, as it only increases their burden with no special gain.

9. Uttaranchal has a lot of outmigration of men. Either for labour in cities or in the army. The word used in the act is head of the family for registration of jobcard. In the social context of India (for that matter any where in the world)head of the family is implicitly taken to be a man. So if the man is not present some of the village officers refuse to register. In future while scripting such acts with far reaching effects one better use words like eldest member of the family or (head of the family or his spouse) i.e. words that are gender neutral.

10. the fourth priority under the permissible works, i.e., land development, minor irrigation and horticulture works in the lands owned by SC/ST, BPLs , IAY and land reforms beneficiaries is very ideal. But because such people dont live contiguously at times it is difficult to implement it especially in hilly areas where are land holdings are patchy in a slopey area.

11. The MUSTER ROLL WATCH is very interesting. But in most of the worksites work is not done time rate basis but in piece rate basis. But muster rolls are filled because they are a necessity. What they do is they directly subtract the amount spent on material from the total amount of the work. They divide the balance by 73(Minimum rate of wage in Uttaranchal), and the resulting figure is the total number of mandays. The group of labourers are told that they have that finish the work (whatever no of days) and they would be paid that amount. (which would be divided amongst them proportionately depending on the no of days each has worked). Because of this though we fill the muster roll part and job card part of the verification sheet, we cant fill the labourers statement part of it.(there would be a discrepancy because, labourers' statement part would be piece rate basis wise, and muster roll and job card has to be filled time rate basis wise atleast to maintain 100 days job security account)

12. In live muster roll watch we dont find much problems with fake names etc., But there are cases when children replace parents when they cant come to the worksite. Not small kids but those below 18. As this is a social welfare programme, one cannot push them away telling them rules. Even if we do officials cant be in the worksite fulltime and this phenomena is bound to repeat. So though consistency sheet might reflect otherwise, in reality the family wouldn't be cheated of its entitlement.

13. In muster roll watches for the entire grampanchayat if a name appears on the same day in two sites it might not necessarily be fudging. It could be a person who has worked on piece rate basis(that is how most of the works are done). He has completed his 100 days work in 70 days. But as it is shown as 100 days as per schedule of rates it gets extended and there may be overlapping.

Sowjanya

Chief Development Officer

Tehri Garhwal