Rural Development Minister opines that the introduction of biometric cards will help reduce corruption, and reveals that NREGS has been successful in AP.
The state government on Wednesday cheered the introduction of biometric identity cards for labourers. The district collectors were given the power to punish corrupt officers who are found guilty of resorting to malpractices in the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
Adopting a stern attitude, Rural Development Minister Dokka Manikya Varaprasad Rao told media persons at the Secretariat on Wednesday that officials resorting to fraud or irregularities in the implementation of welfare schemes and remittances to the workers would not be spared. "Those found guilty will be punished," he asserted.
Varaprasad Rao revealed that a decision to this effect has been taken, and that district collectors would be ordered to punish the corrupt officers.
He stated that ground level authorities were coming in the way of distribution of assets/wages to the labourers.
"For this reason the government has introduced the usage of biometric identity by labourers while claiming their due. This is being done in order to do away with malpractices by the officials concerned at the grass-root level," he said.
Varaprasad Rao disclosed that to lay a road of 1km costing roughly Rs. 1,000, material and labour cost was around 60%, while the remaining was swallowed by contractors. This, he said, resulted in poor quality roads.
Similarly the poor farmer suffered not because of poor MSP or less remunerative price for his produce; 20% of the losses incurred by farmers was due to spurious seeds, 40% due to floods, 20% due to irregularities by officials concerned 20 and 7% due to labourers.
The farmers are unable to cope up with the existing onslaught by the nature's fury coupled with large-scale malpractices, the minister opined.
To stem the simmering discontent and to stem the corrupt officials' advances, a central law was very much required, he opined.
The Parliament must enact a law to ensure the punishment of corrupt officials, and to benefit the farmers, Varaprasad Rao stated.
The minister exhorted the need of a law to ensure the fool-proof implementation of programs, and to protect the interests of poor farmers.
The minister revealed data to support the government's claim that Andhra Pradesh ranked 1st in the implementation the NREGS, with 61 lakh house-holds being provided with work and 32 crore man-days generated with a release of Rs. 8,000 crore including the central share, apart from an expenditure of Rs. 4,899 crore.
Another unique feature is the social audit whose teams monitor the program effectively. So far, Rs. 98 crore was objected by the social audit and Rs. 21 crore recovered, 7,790 officials have been dismissed, 424 suspended, 553 cases booked and 2,586 departmental enquiries initiated.
Courtesy: INN