Radical reforms in rural job scheme mooted

BHUBANESWAR: The rural job scheme under MGNREGA inviting flak from various quarters, the Centre has proposed a slew of reforms aiming to make it demand-driven and rights-based programme. Identifying nine major challenges in the implementation of massive rural employment guarantee scheme, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) proposes payment of unemployment allowance if a legally entitled worker is not given job within the deadline. “If you are not provided work within 15 days of your applying for work, you will be provided unemployment allowance,” the reform note said. Over 50,000 claims for unemployment allowance are pending for disposal in the State. The maximum number of claims are reported from the tribal-dominated districts of Mayurbhanj, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Koraput, Gajapati, Kandhamal and Keonjhar. As unemployment allowance is to be provided by the State Government from its own resources, the resource crunch of the state has come in the way for payment of such a dole. This is not Orissa specific but a common problem for all the states, said a senior Government officer here. A parliamentary standing committee recently recommended to the Centre to make a provision for payment of unemployment allowance as most of the states have failed to comply with the provision in NREGA. Incidentally, the proposed reforms came days after parliamentary committee found discrepancies in MGNREGA wage distribution system and the huge number of corruption cases registered in different states. The reform note further includes solutions to reducing delay in payments to workers, providing requisite number of days of work as per demand, improving quality of assets created under MGNREGA and their relevance to the livelihood of the poor and ensuring full wages stipulated under the programme. The Ministry has further recommended regular flow of funds, strengthening grievance redressal mechanisms and steps to reduce workers’ migration to urban areas. “These reform measures do not involve any legislative amendment and can be put into effect through executive action by the Centre and the states,” Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said in a forward note. “To begin with, these reforms could be implemented in 2,000 of the poorest blocks of the country, especially those with high concentration of population of scheduled categories,” he said.