Centre finds anomalies in implementation of rural job scheme in TS

HYDERABAD: The Centre wrote to the state government on Friday, raising multiple issues in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the state.

The Centre had deputed a team of the ministry of rural development to conduct a monitoring visit in the state from June 9 to 12, which reported several issues with the implementation of MGNREGS in the state.

The Centre said the team had highlighted issues such as undertaking non-permissible work (construction of foodgrain drying platform or staggered trenches in forests), major irregularities in estimation, approval and implementation of the works relating to desilting of minor irrigation tanks including non-compliance of laid down guidelines.

Irregularities relating to splitting of works to avoid approval of technical authority and other procedural violations of guidelines such as those relating to community information boards, job cards, maintenance of proper documentation in the gram panchayats were found, the letter said.

Another set of teams were sent to verify the findings of the first team. All the visiting 15 teams found deficiencies similar to those observed by the earlier team, the Centre said.

Detailed reports were then shared with the state government. The Centre said it expected a detailed Action Taken Report (ATR) against all issues highlighted in the reports by September 11.