Asha Parivar

* FINDINGS OF SOCIAL AUDIT OF NREGS IN BEHENDER BLOCK OF HARDOI DISTRICT
29TH MAY TO 5TH JUNE, 2007
Conducted by Asha Parivar

(1) The common villagers are not quite aware of the NREGA. In most cases even the Gram Pradhans are not aware about the legal rights of the people under this Act.

(2) Even if the Gram Pradhan, Village Development Officer or the Panchayat Mitra are aware about the Act, they do not educate the people. For example, they do not encourage people to apply for the Job Cards or for seeking work.

JOB CARDS

(3) Most of the workers do not possess the Job Cards. They are normally with the Gram Pradhans or the Village Development Officers. Sometimes the villagers are not even aware of the fact that Job Cards exist in their names. In Village Panchayat Atuka people complained that even though they had applied for Job Cards they were not getting them. In Village Panchayat Hiya 12 villagers complained that their Job Cards were taken away from them. In Village Panchayat Bada Gaon 15 villagers have given a written complaint that inspite of asking they were not being given the Job Cards. In Village Panchayat Hiya 12 villagers gave a written complaint that their Job Cards were taken away from them.

(4) The photographs on Job Cards have been invariably affixed with people’s own money even though the cost was to be borne by the government. Names of not all the adult family members desirous of working, especially females, have been mentioned on the Job Cards.

(5) In a number of Panchayats Job Cards have been issued to only families close to the Gram Pradhan. Often these families do not require work under the NREGS. Genuine job seekers are not given Job Cards. As a result there is no official demand for work.

MUSTER ROLLS

(6) The number of days mentioned on Muster Rolls, as can be seen from detailed reports from social audits in village panchayats, are often exaggerated, siphoning off wages in the name of ignorant and unsuspecting people by putting their fake thumb impressions. Muster Rolls are hidden from the people in violation of the NREGA. Similarly, the payment of wages is not done at the work site in violation of the law.

BIAS AGAINST WOMEN AND DIFFERENTLY ABLED

(7) There is clear gender bias in allotment of work. The names of adult female members of the family desirous of doing work are not mentioned on the Job Cards nor do they get work even if they demand it.

(8) Similarly, the physically and mentally challenged individuals were also being discriminated against in allotment of work.

MINIMUM WAGES

(9) Complaints were received from workers in Village Panchayats Bidaura, Birauli, Hasanapur, Raison, Kahchari about non-payment of minimum wages. Only Rs. 50 or Rs. 55 per day were paid.

MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES

(10) According to the law the works should be chosen keeping in mind the developmental requirements and need for providing employment to the people. However, in reality, it is the people’s representatives and government employees who arbitrarily decide the priorities to suit their vested interests.

(11) In a number of cases, old works were shown as new performed under NREGS.

(12) The Panchayat Mitras who have been appointed to help in the implementation of the NREGS are not being assigned their task properly. Some of them have not even seen Muster Rolls. It appears that the Gram Pradhan and Village Development Officers are avoiding involving the Panchayat Mitras in the task of implementing the NREGS properly.

(13) Drinking water, shade and first aid medical facilities were missing at most of the work sites. So were the boards describing the work at site.

(14) Contractors are still playing an important role in the execution of works even though the NREGA has prohibited them.

(15) In Village Panchayats Akbarpur Talhu, Atuka, Bada Gaon, Gauri Damampur, Kudauni, Raison, Samodha the elected Gram Pradhan was not performing the duty. In most cases husbands, sons, former masters or some other closely related men of Gram Pradhans were seen to be acting on behalf of the actual Pradhan.

Jagdish Verma, Ram Sagar Verma, Neelkamal, Keshav Chand, Jaishankar, Ram Bharose, Bhagwandeen, Chandralekha, Suman Gautam, Rambabu, Gayadeen Bharti, Ashok Bharti, Yeshwant Rao, Virendra Singh, Karan Singh, Jitendra Dixit, Srinivas, Ram Naresh, Kamal Kishore, Vinay Kumar, Mahendra Yadav, Chunni Lal, Manoj, Ajay Patel, Usha, Mahesh, Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep
- Asha Parivar
A-893, Indira Nagar, Lucknow-226016
Ph: 0522 2347365, M: 9415022772, e-mail: ashaashram@yahoo.com

Detailed audit data for each village panchayat is available at Janata Soochna Kendra - All Available Data section of this website.
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* FINDINGS OF SOCIAL AUDIT OF NREGS IN BHARAWAN AND SANDILA BLOCKS OF HARDOI DISTRICT IN U.P. DURING 25TH NOV.-2ND DEC., 2006

Conducted by Asha Parivar

NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act)

(1) Most of the people in the 50 Village Panchayats that were covered during the Social Audit exercise in Bharawan and Sandila Blocks of Hardoi District were not even aware of the NREGA. In fact, some Gram Pradhans also did not have a complete knowledge of all the provisions of the Act. Most of them were treating it like any other government scheme.

JOB CARDS

(2) Most of the people had not applied for Job Cards. Those who had, were still awaiting to get their Job Cards. The Gram Pradhans are usually favouring their family members and people who voted for them during the Panchayat elections for making of the Job Cards, like it happens in selecting beneficiaries for most government schemes.

(3) Names of all adult members of the family, especially the women members, are not being mentioned on the Job Cards. No Job Cards were issued to any woman even in women headed households. Name of only one woman was mentioned in a Job Card in Tiloiyakalan Gram Panchayat. The husband of the Gram Pradhan of Purwaman Village Panchayat deaclared in an open meeting that it was not possible for him to make Job Cards in the name of women.

(4) In almost all Gram Panchayats, people had to submit their photographs or pay money to the Pradhan to get their photographs affixed to the Job Cards.

(5) There is a discrepancy between the number of Job Cards shown to be issued in the Block Office records and the register which is available with the Gram Panchayat Vikas Adhikari (VDO). For example, in Atsalia, Atwadanda, Chhanoiya, Gogadev, Dhikunni, Kanaura Aant, Rudauli Newada and Lalamau Gram Panchayats the Block Office record shows, respectively, 269, 222, 301, 255, 270, 245, 240 and 260 Job Cards issued whereas actually only 121, 95, 164, 70, 100, 143, 187 and 180, respectively, cards have been issued. This implies that the official figure of number of Job Cards issued in Sandila and Bharawan Blocks being reported by the Block Office, 13,812 and 12,475, respectively, is probably exaggerated by more than two times.

(6) The Job Cards in all Village Panchayats mostly were with the Gram Pradhans or VDOs and some of them distributed them to people just before the arrival of social audit teams in the village. Still, most Job Cards, even if they have been made, have not reached the rightful owner.

(7) In some Gram Panchayats, like Sahgawan, Narainpur Sunda and Mavai Musalmanan complaints were received of money being charged in the range of Rs. 25-100 for issuing Job Card.

(8) In Gram Panchayat Jamu reports were received of Gram Pradhan having cancelled the Job Cards when the workers did not report for work. This was denied by the BDO Nafees Ahmad. Since the workers did not have the Cards with them the truth could not be verified.

(9) In most Gram Panchayats Job Cards of people who have worked were found blank, there were discrepancies among the Job Card entries, muster roll entries and workers’ testimonies. Name and description of work and wages paid were not shown on the Job Cards.

MUSTER ROLLS

(10) Muster rolls reflected a higher amount paid to the labour. This is a common way of embezzlement of funds. However, in addition to the corruption, under NREGA it also implies reduction by the number of exaggerated days out of 100 days of guarantee to the concerned worker and hence should be considered a crime.

(11) Payments have been registered in personal diaries and signature/thumb impression were taken either on these diaries, private registers, blank sheets or on blank muster rolls.

(12) Names of people who have not worked on the site are shown on muster rolls. Their Job Card numbers have been entered even though they are not aware of any such document. Some of them have worked on private jobs of Pradhans.

(13) Signatures and thumb impressions have been fudged on a large scale. Even people who can sign have been shown to have put thumb impressions on muster rolls. The people who prepare muster rolls seem to have a fascination for thumb impressions.

(14) There was a discrepancy between the number of workers who worked on a particular work shown in the Block office records and the muster rolls.
S.N. Name of Village No. of workers shown in Block Office records No. of workers shown on Muster Rolls.
1. Narainpur Sunda 25 33
2. Tikra Kalan 30 36
3. Atsalia (approach road from Patti Magra to Atsalia Patri) 50 64
4. Atsalia (approach road from Gangabux to Sumer Kheda culvert) 45 48

MINIMUM WAGES & MEASUREMENT OF WORK

(15) In Gram Panchayats Purwaman, Mahitha, Atwa Danda, Sahgawan, Bakwa, Parihawan Sekhwapur, Bharigahna, Atsalia and Mavai Musalmanan complaints were received of Rs. 40-50 having been paid instead of Rs. 58 for per day of work. The usual excuse of the Pradhans is that they paid from their own pocket as there was a dealy in receiving payments from the district authorities.

(16) The payments to workers are not linked to measurement of work. No measurement of works is taking place. The authorities were not able to provide Measurement Books for most of the works. Apart from Measurement Books for 3 works, no measurements books were available for over 100 works in the two Blocks. Without measurements it is not clear how cost estimates are made.

REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN & PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED

(17) Women are being systematically denied employment under this scheme even though the law provides for 33% women employment. In Sandila Block out of 9890 workers offered work so far there are only 7 women. The Pradhans say that women either cannot work or do not want to work.

(18) In all the documents and works examined in two Blocks of Hardoi District there is not a single physically challenged person who has got work.

OTHER ISSUES

(19) Work has been allocated even though no real demand for work has been made. Workers did not receive any receipts, though the government records show that workers demanded work and receipts have been given. The works are being decided by people’s representatives and officials without consulting the people.

(20) No work application receipts have been given to any labour, thus preventing the possibility for making claims of unemployment allowance after 15 days of submission of application demanding work and work not having been provided.

(21) Worksite facilities like drinking water, first aid, shade and crèche for small children (in case of more than five infants at worksite) were not provided in any work.

TRANSPARENCY

(22) No transparency is being observed in implementation of this scheme. Important issues related to transparency are as follows:

1. No boards are put at worksites displaying the work details or sanctioned amounts.
2. Muster rolls are not present at work sites.
3. No information of Job Cards is publicly available.
4. No information on selected projects is available publicly.
5. Social Audits are not done by the Gram Panchayats.

(23) People are afraid of speaking out against the corruption in EGS. The Gram Pradhans and VDOs threaten the people not to speak truth in any inquiry.

(24) Some Gram Panchayats were discovered where the actual Gram Pradhan in not in charge and the Panchayat is being controlled by some other powerful person of the village. Such Panchayats include Gogadev, Mandauli, Erka, Tikrabarar, Mahitha and Barahi. Panchayats where male family members were running the show on behalf of woman Pradhan included Atrauli, Narainpur, Chhanoiya, Purwaman, Kanaura Aant, Mahigawan and Mavai Musalmanan. This implies that in about one-fourth of the Panchayats the actual Gram Pradhan is not conducting the affairs of the Panchayat and the democratic system is being scuttled.

Ram Sagar Verma, Neelkamal, Keshav Chand, Jaishankar, Sajiwan Lal, Ram Bharose, Bhagwandeen, Chandralekha, Suman Gautam, Rambabu, Jitendra Dixit, Jagdish, Gayadeen, Ashok Bharti, Yeshwant Rao, Virendra Singh, Karan Singh, Harshavardhan Purandare, Mahesh, Vallabhacharya, Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep
- Asha Parivar

Detailed audit data for each village panchayat is available at Janata Soochna Kendra - All Available Data section of this website.

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Archives of NREGA Social Audit campaigns by Asha Parivar in various blocks of Uttar Pradesh prior to October 2006 is available at: http://www.thesouthasian.org/archives/asha_parivar_ega.html