Spokesperson: Shri Pawan Khera: He said that Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was introduced by the UPA Government to eradicate poverty from India and the current regime, through the Prime Minister, referred to MGNREGA as a living monument to the failures of the Indian National Congress. MGNREGA became a life saver for the poor and marginalized during the first and second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An expose in the media which accessed publicly available information through the Management Information System (MIS) of the Rural Development Ministry, reveals that Rs. 935 crores were misappropriated in MGNREGA schemes over the last four years under the very nose of the Modi Government.

These numbers are an outcome of the Audits done by the Social Audit Units (SAU) under the Rural Development Department of the Ministry of Rural Development. According to this, the primary type of misappropriation in most cases was “financial misappropriation” which includes and is not limited to bribery, payments to non-existent persons, to vendors at inflated procurement prices etc.

Out of the whopping 935 crores that have been misappropriated, only 12.5 crores which is 1.34% of the misappropriated amount stands recovered.

The very fact that misappropriations have been happening is a testament to the lack of accountability and due diligence by the Modi Government. So much so, that the state with the highest misappropriation between 2017–18 and 2020-21 was the state of Tamil Nadu ruled by the ally of the Modi Government, AIADMK. The state saw a misappropriation of Rs. 245 crores. Incidentally, the state of Rajasthan happens to be the only large state with zero misappropriation of MGNREGA funds. The state of Rajasthan has had a Government of the Congress Party from 2018.

This reflects on the real intentions of the BJP and the current dispensation. The UPA Government in 2011 had brought about The Audit of Scheme Rules which read along with Section 17 of MGNREG Act mandates Social Audit of all MGNREGA work under-taken by Gram Panchayats. And the recommended frequency is of six months, nonetheless, this expose stipulates that only one audit was done per Gram Panchayat over the past four years, which indicates that the amount of misappropriation could easily be 3 to 4 times the current amount.
4% Quota for Differently Abled Persons in Police Forces withdrawn by Central Government This Government isn’t just anti-poor, this Government is anti-people. Unless you can fund the electoral coffers of the BJP, the Government of India would not bother about you. The very fact that the Government of India shamelessly removed the 4% Quota for Differently Abled Persons in Police Forces which include –

• All Combatant Posts of the Central Armed Police Forces (including BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP, SSB and Assam Rifles); • All categories of Posts including non-combatant posts of Police Forces for Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli; • All categories of Posts including non-combatant posts of the Indian Police Services (IPS); • All categories of Posts including non-combatant posts of the Indian Railway Protection Force Service. This pushes India’s equal opportunities for all movement back by decades. More than 90% posts reserved for Women Police Officers remain Vacant This Government has not just failed to pass the Women’s reservation bill, in areas where reservation is already there, Home Minister Amit Shah has failed miserably at ensuring implementation. As per a reply given by the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Lok Sabha, out of 20,91,488 posts available for women police officers, only a mere 1,15,504 posts have been filled. This reflects on the lack of intent on part of this regime, nothing else.

Demands

The Congress Party demands that:

1. The Government of India is held accountable for the misappropriations in the MGNREGA scheme and ensures that Social Audit is undertaken as per the provisions of the Act.
2. That the Government of India recovers the misappropriated amount at the earliest and ensures that the recovered money is used to compensate the poor and marginalized who have suffered a lot due to the COVID-19 mismanagement by the Government.
3. We demand that the Government of India withdraw the notification that scrapped the 4% quota for Differently Abled Persons in Police Forces and undo this inhuman wrong.
4. With rising crimes against women under this Government it is a shame that more than 90% of the reserved posts for Woman police officers have been kept vacant, we demand filling them on a war footing. Saturday, August 21, 2021