JOIN USBut the insistence by elected representatives of all levels, including Gram Panchayats (GPs), to include details of works that have been started and those that are in progress in the Nominal Muster Roll (NMR) documents have put Zilla Panchayat (ZP) officials in a quandary.
The GPs had been instructed in October last year itself to prepare an action plan under MGNREGS for 2011-12, say ZP officials. They were asked to conduct Grama Sabhas in October.
The issues discussed there should be given the form of an action plan in the GP meeting and the action plan should be submitted to the Taluk Panchayat (TP), the gram panchayats were told.
The TP officials would provide guidance in case there is a need for changes in the action plan. The GPs were told to submit the action plans to the Zilla Panchayat by November, said an official on condition of anonymity.
If there are still changes to be made to the action plan, the ZP would send it back to the GPs, so that it can be submitted again with suitable changes. The GPs were supposed to submit the final action plans by December. Officials say that none of the GPs had submitted the action plans.
Another anomaly is the mode of payment of wages to the workers. District incharge minister Lakshman Savadi had directed the ZP at its general meeting on January 29 to take steps for paying the money through bank accounts.
Accordingly, a meeting chaired by Prasanna Kumar, the MGNREGS director of the rural development and Panchayat Raj department, was held on April 15. But the meeting could not arrive at a decision on the mode of payment.
There is now a proposal before the ZP that the payment should be made either by depositing the money in bank accounts of those who are entitled to it or through the post office in villages that do not have banks.
However, zilla panchayat officials are worried that there will be more problems if this system of payment is implemented.