MNREGA workers have been demanding the gram panchayat of K.Golahalli to conduct a social audit to check mismanagement in working sites.
K.Golahalli Gram Panchayat failed to conduct a social audit of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Gurantee Scheme (MNREGA). The responsibility of conducting a social audit is missing from the list of the functions of this gram panchayat. Social audit was made mandatory for MNREGA scheme to bring transparency in the scheme through the participation of people.
Kalavathi, a member and former president of the K.Golahalli gram panchayat said, “Panchayat has failed in conducting a social audit of MNREGA Scheme. It only notifies to form a social audit forum but, failed to take action upon those notifications.”
She added that many times MNREGA workers come to the office to submit applications before the Block Development Officer (BDO) of the Panchayat to conduct a social audit. But, BDO always declines the request of workers by saying that panchayat does not have enough funds to conduct the audit.
She further said, “Some of my relatives wanted to enroll in MNREGA Scheme. However, they could not enroll because MNREGA officials said that they do not require more labourers. But, in reality there was a shortage of labourers in that construction site. This could only come out when a proper social audit is conducted.”
Madhu, a MNREGA worker said, “Last year, I got a contract to work on a farmland owned by a landlord named Manjunath to build a forestry farm. The project was approved by Gollahalli gram panchayat, but the project has not been started yet. I have been waiting to get employment.”
He added that he went to the department of the Panchayati Raj along with 20 other workers involved in the same project to raise demand to conduct a social audit to find out when the project is going to start and where the sanctioned amount for the project has been put in use. He said, “We are all currently unemployed, we do not have any concrete source of income. All our hopes are stuck to that project.”
Srinivas, Secretary of K.Golahalli Gram Panchayat said that it is difficult to conduct social audits with less funding. Social audit is an expensive affair. He said, “Yes, we do get a lot of complaints from MNREGA workers related to enrolment, document and Aadhar verification etc. They have asked us many times to form a social audit forum, but every time we failed to do so because we receive very limited funding, and social audit is of least priority among other projects of a gram panchayat.”
Ratnamma, another MNREGA worker and a resident of K.Golahalli village said that the job application of her son to work as a MNREGA worker was approved two years ago. However, she said that the gram panchayat has not given him the job card yet. Due to this he cannot work under any MNREGA sites. She said, “I am old, I want my son to start working, and MNREGA is the best job he can do as he is not educated.” She said that she does not know whom to approach for enquiry.
However, Dr. Namita Jain, Professor of Law at Rajasthan University said, “It is the responsibility of a gram panchayat to conduct a social audit every six months to check and to find out any discrepancies happening in government projects. It is the duty of a gram panchayat to inform MNREGA workers of their right to form a social audit forum and to raise demand to conduct a social audit, if they feel any opaqueness in the functioning of the government officials.” She added that social audit has become a great tool for the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to bring transparency and to bring financial propriety in the functioning of gram panchayats.
Ningegowda, adviser to the director of Department of Panchayati Raj and Rural Development said that the department regularly disburses the amount specified in the budget to gram panchayats. It is the responsibility of the gram panchayat to conduct social audits. “We can only issue notices to those gram panchayats which fail to conduct such an audit, but we cannot take any legal action against those gram panchayats. It is against the constitution,” he added.
He added that the ultimate power to take legal action against the gram panchayat lies within the jurisdiction of the gram sabha of that panchayat. The gram sabha has to constitute a social audit forum to take necessary steps to conduct the social audit.
The 73rd amendment of the constitution has put forth the concept of social audit by a gram sabha. It is the process which ensures complete details of resources, financial and non financial used by public agencies, has to be recorded. It is to enable communities to exercise their rights given to them through the scheme under rights and entitlements of wage seekers.
It goes through 11 stages of implementation, registration of families, distribution of job cards, receipt of work applications, allotment of work to individuals etc.
Dr. Namita Jain added that social audit helps in increasing social participation in the development programmes. It gives more voice to gram sabhas. She said that it is the cornerstone of rural development.
