The Narendra Modi government has decided to revamp the way records of assets created under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act (MGNREGA) are maintained so that any inspecting authority can audit them to check the credibility of the scheme.
Work done under MGNREGA results in the creation of assets in villages like canals or ponds. With the Centre's focus on the same, all states have been asked to create revamped `fixed asset registers' by June 15 which will be kept at gram panchayats.There was a provision for maintaining an asset register under the original MGNREGA guidelines issued by the UPA government but the present government feels the existing registers are not well-organised.The Ministry of Rural Development has now been asked to give top priority to this matter. “ An up-to-date asset register would serve as audit evidence that any inspecting authority may require, to express their opinion on the credibility of any MGNREGA works,“ the ministry said in a communique to all states this month.
Questioning how does one go about implementing control measures if there is no record of what is owned, the Centre has stressed that the list of benefits that can be derived by creating a full-fledged asset register are “endless, one significant benefit being that one has insights for future planning“, adding that “we simply tend to lose sight of valuable assets created in a scenario where there is no well-organised register.“ The Centre has hence revised and simplified the asset register which was prescribed earlier. “The register will be able to quickly retrieve information about an asset, including its description, date, location and works performed. The new register will also give the capability to track changes of an asset throughout its life-cycle,“ the communique from the Centre has said.
The government has specified that work finished under MGNREGA will either create a new asset or will link up to an existing asset earlier created under MGNREGA.The new asset register, as specified by the Centre, will be a permanent register and will not be maintained year-wise. The Supreme Court has earlier this month pulled up the Centre over the implementation of the MGNREGA scheme, criticising the late payment of wages and lack of monitoring at the state level. The Centre has subsequently also written to the states to set up State Employment Guarantee Councils within 45 days, as per Supreme Court orders .
The Economic Times New Delhi,24th May 2016
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