JOIN USLack of coordination among officials irks Siddaramaiah
At a meeting of the panchayat development officers, secretaries and executive officers of taluk panchayats, lack of coordination among officials in executing the Central scheme was palpable.
Opposition leader Siddaramaiah observed that there payments were not made for works executed under MGREGS in 2009 and 2010 when the Act clearly specifies that the labourers should be paid within 15 days.
Officials blamed work pressure for not meeting the deadline. An assistant executive engineer is responsible for about 5 to 6 panchayats in his taluk and it is practically impossible to write measurement book (MB) and enter MIS data within a week of execution of the work, as stipulated in the Act. The AEE is also burdened with other civil works for ZP, MLA and MP funds and Nabard schemes. The fund is not released due to delay in entry of MIS data, an official said.
In her address, ZP CEO Sathyavathi said her office has floated an expression of interest (EoI) to hire technical assistants to fill the gap.
“Henceforth, there cannot be carry over system of work. The works planned for every month should be completed in the same month. Otherwise, the executive officers and other implementing officers will face action,” she said. She said action plan has been prepared for 23,279 works in the district.
The ZP has been able to take up only 11,111 works so far and successfully implement 4,899 works.
Out of the Rs 202 crore allocated to the district for 2010-11 about Rs 60 crore has been utilised till now, the CEO added.
Siddaramaiah expressed displeasure at officials’ statement that the software for entry of MIS data for each family locked after 100 days of work when the Act says that the job scheme should provide at least 100 days of work.
“District in-charge minister Ramdas asked the officers to attend to technical problems and raise the limit on the number of working days. In fact, MGREGS provides 365 days of work. To a complaint that plugging multiple registration from a single family became a headache for officials, the minister asked the CEO to formulate a proper mechanism to solve duplication of works to a family.