MGNREGS in Tamil Nadu is guaranteed mismanagement

CHENNAI: In October, there was unease and anxiety in the hinterland of Tamil Nadu over pending wages of hundreds of workers under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). What started as muffled voices of resentment soon grew louder and there were signs of the disillusionment snowballing into protests. Thankfully, the Union government sanctioned the funds and wages were distributed. But the episode emphasised the significance of the scheme in villages. The scheme, launched in 2006 as a pioneer social security measure guaranteeing work, invoked sharply divided views. Its proponents say the project reduces poverty, limits migration and empowers women. Critics on the other hand point out that it’s a project where money is pumped in without due returns. Seldom are meaningful projects taken up and implemented effectively, not to mention irregularities that have been found by social audits.
“MGNREGS has become a money distribution scheme rather than a job scheme,’’ noted a senior bureaucrat involved in audits of the scheme in Tamil Nadu. This is perhaps one scheme which keeps every stakeholder happy – the worker, who gets paid without toiling, the panchayat members, who are often the reason for pilferage of funds, government officers, who either take a share of the pie or turn a blind eye to irregularities, and the political class that reaps votes by keeping villagers happy. Of course, the victim here is the state exchequer.
Attendance enough
Around 200m from the main road at Adavathur panchayat in Trichy, around 30 women, most of them senior citizens, and a few men in their seventies were seen relaxing and playing a game of dice on the roadside recently.
The group were MGNREGS workers employed to remove weeds from canal banks and clean the space adjacent to road. “This is breakfast time,’’ M Meenakshi, 75, told TOI when asked about workers idling around 11am. The women said they started work by 8am and would resume after breakfast. But the shovel and sickle near them were clean and had no sign of being used. They said they were de-weeding the locality of Madhulankollai for the past few days, but there was very little sign of weeds being removed.
Lack of supervision was evident. Though the panchayat appointed a woman enrolled in MGNREGS to work as a supervisor, she only checks attendance, there is no one to keep track of working hours and quality of work. “Some of the workers are senior citizens. We cannot pressure them, as some have injured themselves,” said R Sangeetha, supervisor-cum-MGNREGS worker.
While youngsters feel that ₹220 per day is insufficient, and have moved to other jobs, others choose to hold on to MGNREGS because of the guarantee of work. “If we work in fields to remove weeds, we will be paid only ₹150 to ₹200 per day, we are getting the same here,” N Parameshwari, a 42-year-old worker said.
Post Covid-19, the number of workers demanding work under MGNREGS went up. As a result, most of the workers between March and December 2021 have not got even 50 days of work. “As more senior citizens opt for MGNREGS work, we barely get 50 days of work. More workers have also reduced the number of working days available,” Parameshwari said.
Much can’t be said about projects either as most panchayats keep repeating the same work of cleaning tank bunds, widening canals, strengthening drains and digging rainwater harvesting pits.
Panchayat representatives go easy on such lapses as they require support of locals who account for a significant number of votes. K Dhanalakshmi, president of Adavathur panchayat, said reinstatement of welfare workers (Makkal Nala Paniyalargawl) as supervisors for MGNREGS could improve the quality of work. “If two supervisors are appointed, the quality of work will improve,” she said.
Facilities lie idle
An unused vermicompositing unit at Kottapalayam village in Sarkarsamakulam block in rural Coimbatore underline how MGNREGA funds go waste as they are spent on projects which are abandoned.
Opposite a burial ground is the hut constructed for vermicomposting from the organic waste generated from the village. The facility constructed at the cost of ₹1 lakh in 2017-18 under MGNREGS is yet to be used. The pits dug to compost degradable and non-degradable waste are filled with an assortment of garbage from the burial ground. MGNREGA records show that 55 days were spent on this project.
“We have not yet received electricity connection to the vermicompost unit. Once the supply is provided we will start using the facility,” says V Govindaran, president of the panchayat. The vermicomposting procedure does not require electricity and power supply was only required for lighting the facility. Govindaran also does not have answers for a four-year delay in obtaining the connection. Villagers say garbage dumped along the roadside is seldom cleared.
If the objective behind setting up the vermicompost unit in the village with a population of around 25,000 was met, the streets would have been clean, and the villagers could have got organic manure.
When TOI visited the village, work was underway to fence the burial ground using juliflora poles. Of the 25 women deployed, about 10 were seen seated under the shade of an overhead tank with no one to supervise. Most of the workers were aged between 35 to 50. “We used to work in tanks, with water bodies turning slushy in the recent rain, we have been working here for the past week,” said Shanthamani, a worker.