Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Committee to the Central…

Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Committee to the Central Council held
    on 5th August, 2008 in the Chamber of Secretary (Rural Development)

      A meeting was held of the Executive Committee to the Central Council on 5th
August, 2008 in the Chamber of Secretary (Rural Development). Meeting was
attended by the following:

            1.      Principal Secretary (RD), Government of Tamil Nadu
            2.      Principal Secretary (RD), Government of Jharkhand
            3.      Smt. Subhashini Ali, Member (Non Official)
            4.      Smt. Annie Raja, Member (Non Official)
            5.      Shri Ramachandra Khuntia, Member (Non Official)
            6.      Dr. Jean Dreze, Member (Non Official)
            7.      Joint Secretary (NREGA), Member Secretary
            8.      Shri S.K. Chakraborty, Ministry of Panchayati Raj
            9.      Shri V.J. Menon, Director (Finance), Ministry of Rural Development

2.    Welcoming the members of executive committee, Secretary (RD) briefed them
on the status of implementation of NREGA in the financial year 2008-09. She drew
attention to the following issues.

A.          Review of NREGA

      I)         Financial inclusion

      (a)        The number of accounts opened with Post Offices and Banks have risen
                 to 2.71 crore. Regular monthly meetings are held with Department of
                 Posts for zero balance account. Department of Posts has been requested
                 to issue necessary notification. Banks and Post Offices are experimenting
                 with innovative ideas like Business Correspondent and Biometric Cards.
                 Banks are doing three pilot project in 60 districts. .
      (b)        Janshree Bima Yojana: Finance Ministry has directed LIC to classify
                 NREGA workers as rural poor. 50% of the premium will be contributed
                 from social security fund. Remaining 50% of the premium shall be
                 contribution from States. Andhra Pradesh has already taken initiative in
                 the process.
      (c)        Rashtriya Swastha Yojana: NREGA workers to be brought under the
                 ambit of Rashtriya Swastha Yojana.

II)         Financial Issues

       (i) Up to month of July Rs. 13,485 crore have been released to States. It
was informed that as Monsoon Session of Parliament is delayed, the first and
second supplementary release may be clubbed together.
       (ii) 416 labour budgets have already been approved totaling up to 27,500
crore. Labour budget based fund release and monitoring has been established.



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       (iii)  Financial Rules are formulated for fund movement.
       (iv)   In consultation with CAG, the Audit Rules are being prepared. 1st Draft
Rules are ready.
       (v) As contemplated earlier to have a buffer fund of Rs. 5,000 crore for any
eventuality, the Ministry of Finance has turned down the proposal. The issue is
again taken up and is under process at the level of SS&FA.

       II)      Creation of State Cell for Professional Support

         State Cell has been created and funds have been released to States for
utilization as per guideline issued. In next Performance Review Committee meeting,
details of action taken shall be discussed.

IV)          State Fund

      Eight States - Tamil Nadu, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, West Bengal, Madhya
Pradesh, Orissa and Assam have already notified creation of State Employment
Guarantee Fund.

V)     PRC meeting with state Rural Development Secretaries were held on May
12th 2008

VI)    Monthly analysis of MPRs and MIS is shared with major States at Secretary
(RD) level.

       VII)     Monitoring of Potential demand based on metrological forecast

       Demand of work under NREGS may increase even in lean seasons due to
delayed Monsoon and less rainfall in various areas. This is being monitored with the
help of Met Department.

B.           Initiative to Strengthen NREGA

(I)          Legal Issues

(a)          Definition of Household

        Issue was referred to Law Ministry which has stated that the definition in the
Act will hold until Act is amended.
        The Secretary (TN) informed that classification on definition of household as
per guidelines is being followed.

(II)         Grievance Redressal

      (a)    The draft Transparency Rules shall be sent for vetting once comment
from State and others are received.



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         (b)   Expert Committee under the Chairmanship of Shri Moolchand has met
and the Ombudsman rules are in final stage of finalization.
         (c)   A very simple system of Toll free helpline 1800110707 has been set
up to receive complaints. It was informed that Ministry has two choices either to
start it as such or to put the entire system in place within 4 months ­ together with
the model for helpline as finalized shall be shared with States.

(III)   Administrative Issues

      (a)     The EFC memo for enhancing expenditure from 4% to 6% is under
process for approval of MORD.
      (b)     Convergence Task Force has already met twice and in process of
developing guidelines/Plan of Action.
      (c)     Interface with ICAR on 13/8/08 to discuss the issue of convergence
and participation of KVKs in NREGA programmes.

(IV)    Implementation of MIS

Nodal Officers for expediting MIS operationalisation have been appointed by States.
First monthly meeting through video-conferencing was held in the month of July.

C.       IEC & Training

   i. Three TV spots and three newspaper advertisements have been developed.
      Others are under process.
  ii. TV spots are being aired on various TV channels.
 iii. National Seminar on NREGA was convened on 16th May, 2008.
 iv. A performance of Dance-Drama on NREGA in CIRDAP was held.
  v. Gram Rojgar Purskar Yojana is finalized and instruction to CAPART and States
      has been issued.
 vi. Round table on collaboration on NREGA with IITs, IIMs and Agricultural
      Universities held on 1st August, 2008. Participation by 40 institutes.
vii. 5 Peer Learning Workshop in LBSNAA, Mussorrie have been organized with 148
      State District Officials.
viii. Round Table discussion with Public & Private Banks and Insurance Companies to
      be held in the month of September.

D.     Notification of Wage Rate
       The issue of minimum wages and notification under NREGA 6(1) will be
discussed in the meeting of State Secretaries on 14th August, 2008 to take all the
States on board before a decision is taken in this regard.

E. Performance Audit by CAG
      Dates have been sought from CAG for 2nd round of performance Audit for 2nd
phase districts.




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F. Independent evaluation and Monitoring

      i) 260 National Level Monitors (NLMs) have visited to 330 districts. Reports
of NLMs shall be reviewed for quality and substance by outside agency like IIPA.
The proposal for evaluation by National Sample survey Organisation (NSSO)
was contemplated in the meeting. Advisor Statistics have been associated for
this purpose.
     ii) The members were intimated that V.V. Giri Institute has been assigned to
do SOR studies.
    iii) The Ministry is also considering setting up programme institutional network
for resource support for evaluation.

3. Confirmation of minutes of last meeting

   After briefing the members of Executive Committee, Minutes of last meeting
   were confirmed.

4. Issue for discussion and decision taken

   a) Rules for transparency and accountability

   Secretary informed that draft rules for transparency and accountability have
   been formulated, circulated to State/UTs for comments and also placed on
   NREGA website. A presentation was made before Hon ble MRD. Draft rules
   were discussed and certain modifications were suggested by the members for
   incorporation in these rules, summarized as follows:
   i) Documents related to ongoing works shall be made available to workers
   within 24 hours from the time of oral/written application for scrutiny.
   ii) Request for copy of documents related to works already completed shall be
   made through RTI
   iii) The Employment Guarantee Day shall be held for pro-active disclosure
   preferably once a week but not later than a fortnight at the village level, once
   in a month at block level, once in 3 months at district level; once in 6 months
   at state level,
   iv) All relevant documents including complete file of the works or copies of
   them shall be available for inspection to public at large at the gram Panchayat
   in the social audit.
   v) Social audit committee shall be elected by the Gram Sabha and be
   presided by person who is not a member of the current Gram Panchayat. The
   social audit committee will not include of persons involve in implementing
   NREGA. It will verify records and will also receive information from any
   agency/individual who seeks to give such information.
   vi) The social audit will be done by Gram Sabha but outside individual
   person/group/NGO apart from Gram Sabha and Social audit Committee shall
   be allowed to attend the social audit as observers without intervening in the
   proceedings of the social audit.



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     It was agreed that the draft rules shall be finalised by the end of
   September.

   b) Penal provisions under NREGA

   Issue of strengthening of penal provision in the Act was brought out by
   members for discussion. It was discussed that even a small penalty as
   provided in Section 25 is sufficient to act as deterrent to erring officials
   because it can jeopardize their career prospects. Secretary (RD) said that
   the issue shall be flagged for next meeting.

   c) Complaints

   Dr. Jean Dreze raised the issue of serious complaints and their disposal. The
   members were briefed about the status of complaints.

  i. Murder of Shri Lalit Mehta in Palamau District

       Secretary RD Jharkhand cited the report of S.P., Palamau, Shri Lalit
Mehta was killed by a gang of road robbers, who have been arrested and have
confessed their crime, for money and his murder had no connection with his
social audit activities under NREGA. The Government of Jharkhand has
recommended to Govt of India for investigation of the murder of Shri Lalit Mehta
by Central Bureau of Investigation. The status of further progress shall be
enquired from state.

 ii. Fake muster roll in Chattarpur Block of Palamau District

       Cases of fake muster roll were reported in Khendrakhurd and Sanghatava
Baghout Gram Panchayats of Chattarpur Block of Palamau district.
       As per reports sent by the District Administration, in Khendrakhurd G.P.
the work of excavation of tank was being executed by Daltanganj Northern
Forest Division, Chhatarpur, in which project, after preliminary enquiry, Shri Jai
Kumar Mishra, Forest Guard, Shri Baidyanath Ram, Vanapal have been found to
be prime facie guilty of having prepared forged muster roll and the District
Commissioner, Palamau has issued directions to the BDO, Chhatarpur to
register FIR against the above delinquent officials. Shri Vinay Kumar, Ranger,
was also found to be prima facie negligent in performance of administrative
duties as he did not conduct monitoring and supervision of the project properly
and made payment of advance without any verification. Accordingly, Deputy
Commissioner has recommended for his suspension to Divisional Forest Officer
of Medininagar.

      Similarly in fake muster roll case of excavation of tank in Sanghatava
Baghout Gram Panchayat, irregularities were found to have been committed by
Shri Jeevbodhan Prajapati, Panchayat Sevak, who has been placed under



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suspension and by Shri Rajest Ram, Rozgar Sevak, the implementation of
whose work contract has been kept under abeyance.

iii. Self-immolation by Shri Tapas Soren, an adivasi farmer from Churchu block
     in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand allegedly for non-payment of wages
     under NREGA

       Sri Tapas Soren Committed self immolation on 3.7.2008. He was
sanctioned a dug well (Rs.1,63,200). State Government got him admitted to
Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi on 3.7.08 where he succumbed to his injuries on
8.7.2008. Following actions have been taken by the State Government:

   i. Block Development Officer, Manmohan Prasad, has been suspended
   ii.Panchayat Sewak, Braj Kishore Mahto, has been suspended
   iii.
      Gram Rozgar Sewak, Kamna Kumari, has been dismissed
   iv.an FIR has been lodged in the case and the entire episode is under police
      investigation
   v. An amount of Rs. 1 Lakh has been given to the wife of deceased.

 iv. Alleged large scale irregularities in the implementation of NREGA in Gumla
     district of Jharkhand, particularly grant of funds of Rs. 5 crores to a private
     limited company viz. Brahamanand Farmers and Research Centre,
     Jamshedpur for growing Safed Musli.

       Shri G.R. Juneja, National Level Monitor of the Ministry was deputed to
Gumla District to enquire into the matter. In his report , the NLM has mentioned
that one allegation of liberal grant of around Rs.18 crores to NGOs having no
track record, particularly grant of Rs.5 crores to a private firm named, Bramanand
Farmers and Research Centre(BFRC), Jamshedpur for doing the farming of
Safed Musli and Stevia, was found true. The State Government has been
requested on 01.07.08 to get the matter enquired, particularly on the points
relating to the above allegation found true by the NLM. Secretary RD Jharkhand
reported that Commissioner of Ranchi is enquiring into the matter.

 v. Murder of Shri Kameshwar Yadav, resident of Khatauri village of Deori
    Block, Giridih District in Jharkhand allegedly for his NREGA related activities

       As per the report of the State Government dated 03.07.08 the matter is
under police investigation. The State Government has opined that, it would be
premature to link the murder to NREGA. As ascertained over telephone, three
arrests have been made in this case by the local police.

      vi) Secretary (RD), Jharkhand intimated the members about Jharkhand's
initiative of nominating 24 state level monitors for better monitoring of NREGA in
Jharkhand.




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     d) Plan for visit to States by council members

The plan was discussed and the visit schedule was finalized as under.

Month                                     State
September                                 Chattisgarh
October                                   West Bengal
November                                  Bihar
December                                  Assam
January                                   Rise
February                                  Uttar Pradesh

e)        i)   Identity card of the members of council have been received and
               same was handed over to members.
        ii)    for communication a group mail id (nregacegc@gmail.com ) with
               acknowledgement system has been created and members were
               informed.




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