<p>Bengaluru: Only 5 per cent of rural households were provided with 100 days of work under MGNREGA between 2019-20 and 2023-24, the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) said in a report Tuesday that also flagged “fraudulent” payments and “fabrication” of records.</p><p>The CAG performance audit on MGNREGA, tabled in the Assembly, found the existence of “ghost workers” and other shortcomings by the rural development and panchayat raj (RDPR) department.</p>.CAG flags funding gaps and poor resource mobilisation in Karnataka’s Smart City Mission.<p>“Not even half of the registered households had demanded work during the audit period. Though there was a decline in demand for employment, the department could not meet the reduced demand even,” the CAG said. “The number of households who were provided with at least 100 days of employment during the period was only 5 per cent and majority of households were provided with only 1-30 days of employment,” it said.</p><p>For example, in 2023-24, 79.09 lakh job cards were issued and 32.41 lakh households sought work. Of them, 29.96 lakh households were provided with employment. Only 0.43 lakh households got 100 days of work.</p><p>At the state-level, the number of households that got 100 days of work ranged from 0.32 lakh to 2.4 lakh.</p><p>In its reply to the CAG, the government cited reasons such as inactive job cards and migration of workers for the low demand.</p><p>Meanwhile, the CAG found that the average percentage of active workers was only 45 per cent “evidencing that majority of registered workers (55 per cent) did not work under MGNREGS.”</p><p>The CAG stated: “The low percentage of active job cards/workers could be attributable to the existence of ghost workers, failure of gram panchayats to undertake annual updating exercise of job cards, poor awareness levels of entitlements among potential beneficiaries.”</p><p>In another finding, the CAG said that a large number of approved works under MGNREGA were not taken up apart from many of them being incomplete for more than one year. The audit also noticed fraudulent transactions such as payment for houses already completed, payment to ineligible beneficiaries and payments without undertaking construction.</p><p>Totally, works worth Rs 5,275 crore were flagged by social audits for financial misappropriation and deviation.</p>
<p>Bengaluru: Only 5 per cent of rural households were provided with 100 days of work under MGNREGA between 2019-20 and 2023-24, the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) said in a report Tuesday that also flagged “fraudulent” payments and “fabrication” of records.</p><p>The CAG performance audit on MGNREGA, tabled in the Assembly, found the existence of “ghost workers” and other shortcomings by the rural development and panchayat raj (RDPR) department.</p>.CAG flags funding gaps and poor resource mobilisation in Karnataka’s Smart City Mission.<p>“Not even half of the registered households had demanded work during the audit period. Though there was a decline in demand for employment, the department could not meet the reduced demand even,” the CAG said. “The number of households who were provided with at least 100 days of employment during the period was only 5 per cent and majority of households were provided with only 1-30 days of employment,” it said.</p><p>For example, in 2023-24, 79.09 lakh job cards were issued and 32.41 lakh households sought work. Of them, 29.96 lakh households were provided with employment. Only 0.43 lakh households got 100 days of work.</p><p>At the state-level, the number of households that got 100 days of work ranged from 0.32 lakh to 2.4 lakh.</p><p>In its reply to the CAG, the government cited reasons such as inactive job cards and migration of workers for the low demand.</p><p>Meanwhile, the CAG found that the average percentage of active workers was only 45 per cent “evidencing that majority of registered workers (55 per cent) did not work under MGNREGS.”</p><p>The CAG stated: “The low percentage of active job cards/workers could be attributable to the existence of ghost workers, failure of gram panchayats to undertake annual updating exercise of job cards, poor awareness levels of entitlements among potential beneficiaries.”</p><p>In another finding, the CAG said that a large number of approved works under MGNREGA were not taken up apart from many of them being incomplete for more than one year. The audit also noticed fraudulent transactions such as payment for houses already completed, payment to ineligible beneficiaries and payments without undertaking construction.</p><p>Totally, works worth Rs 5,275 crore were flagged by social audits for financial misappropriation and deviation.</p>
