Flouting its own order, a careless rural development ministry has been issuing sanctions for the UPA flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) committing a technical financial irregularity.
Sources said the ministry has been inadvertently issuing sanctions worth thousands of crores of rupees under the Act and can land in trouble if it is challenged in a court as the approval could then be rendered illegal.
The ministry allocates funds to the state governments for implementing the MGNREGA scheme for providing jobs to the poor on demand. Under the scheme, the poor are entitled to `100 per day of wages. Sources further said the sanctions given to various state governments under the Act, indicate financial irregularity as they have been made for NREGA, which technically does not exist for the government of India following an amendment in the name of the Act last year.
Sources said new nomenclature was given to NREGA to give it a distinct identity as there were reports that some states were utilising central funds under the garb of local schemes. Subsequently, on January 7, 2010 the rural development ministry had issued orders asking the states to make suitable changes in their prospective references to the Act and the rural job plan.
But sanction orders under MGNREGA issued to states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat in August this year show that the ministry is happily continuing with the old usage NREGA, a clear violation of its own order.
“This shows the carelessness of the ministry. The mistake should be rectified immediately,” said Nikhil Dey, who assists Central Employment Guarantee Council member Aruna Roy in monitoring the implementation of the MGNREGA.