Panchayat: The principal authority of NREGS
- National Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes -

Dr N. Mohendro Singh *

The policy initiative taken by the Government of India for the progressive reduction of rural poverty, rural unemployment and rural inequality is, perhaps passing through a very crucial phase of planning and implementation.

The message of the national commitment is undoubtedly clear but there are many critical issues involved, intertwined, mutually vitiating and ultimately providing a new dispensation of confusion in this troubled age of Manipur and creating a gold mine for a handful few.

The calculated dismissal of the statutory involvement of the Panchayati Raj Institution (PRIs) on the supposed inefficiency and dearth of technical manpower speaks volume; in the sense that the cynical substitute for the PRIs ultimately is the appointed" BABUS" who have been incorrigibly conditioned by the culture of "proxy" reporting and action.

They have their own world in the pulacial rooms on majestic chairs. 'The patron-clientalisnl has deepened the personalised nexus and as a result the unfair game is on the rise. Today in Manipur" office" is treated as" income-generating personal property".

Visibly tempted by the unbridled temptations for easy money in the name of the poor people, the main players down the line have sleepless nights in designing and redesigning the easy route and road map to the invisible transaction of benefits.

This is what we see today in the poor and soft state of Manipur. What do we find on the ground is so-called tottering assets, dusty roads, half cooked, ill-designed and poorly managed schemes.

Yes, Tamenglong district is the first luckiest district in terms of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes (NREGS), 2005. OK the so-called success stories of 20024 households could in a way be a grim reminder of the numbered fate of this programme in other districts where the programme is all set to make its appearance.

Well, Churachandpur and Chandel districts have witnessed the commencement of the scheme. Now the valley districts are going to be within the "boxing arena". But the basic question is; are we going to have the same wine in the small bottle ? Are we going to have empty satisfaction of the "Basket Case" (perforated points of leakages) ?

Six basic questions do confront us and we do need a sound analysis and a white paper.

1. Who are the members of the Manipur State Employment Guarantee Council ? How many meetings have so far been held?
2. Who actually prepares the plans/schemes, — either by the Village Panchayats or by the Deputy Commissioners?
3. Who prepares the Labour Budget and how ? In other words, has the door-to-door household survey as mandated by the Act, ever been made to identify the willing poor?
4. Who monitors and evaluates in actual sense; where is the report?
5. Whether the Manipur State Employment Guarantee Fund has been created?
6. What about the initial instalment to be received as seed money from the Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India?

We have 2391 villages; Senapati has 625, Tamenglong 171, Churachandpur 546, Chandel 361, Ukhrul 198, Imphal East 204, Imphal West 134, Thoubal 103 and Bishnupur 49. Some of the villages in the hill areas are notoriously inaccessible and equally disturbed.

Who will go there and when to identity the poor and assess the physical needs to prepare the work programme". The district councils right now do not function in the way constitutionally required. The grass root players have, perhaps, no grass to eat and no ground to stand on.

The isolated hamlets look deserted and disappointed groaning under the heavy weight of grinding poverty and gross deprivations of basic human necessities. Forget dignity of life. Livelihood security is still a far cry, just a nightmare. It is not merely the question of addressing poverty; essentially it is a question of addressing the culture of poverty.

One may like to see in black and white the incremental income in the hands of the employed unskilled persons and enhancement of livelihood of 20024 households reported to have been provided employment in 2007-08 in Tamenglong in order to gain "convincing insights" of the ongoing exercise and also to save the imminent setback; defeating the noble purpose of the mission.

As it stands today almost all the poor people in the villages and almost all 'the players of the local self Government (Panchayati Raj Institutions and District Councils) remain amused with temporary gains and bubbles without any positive involvement and contribution as such. How can we encourage the system which stifles the honest initiative and enthusiasm of the grass root players?

Principal Authorities

Panchayat is not a mere authority but the "principal authority" under whom all activities have to be undertaken. Article 13 (1) states:
"The Panchayats at district, intermediate and village levels shall be the principal authorities for planning, and implementation of the schemes under this Act".

The functions of the Panchayats at the district levels shall be:

• To finalise and approve blockwise self of projects to be taken up under a programme officer under the scheme;
• To supervise and monitor the projects taken up at Block and District Levels;
• To carry out such other functions as may be assigned to it by the State Council from time to time,

The District Programme Co-ordinator (may be CEO or D.C.) shall assist the district panchayats in discharging its functions under this Act. Perhaps, one of the challenging tasks of the District Programme Coordinator is to prepare in the month of December every year a Labour Budget for the next financing year to be submitted to the District Panchayat.

Gram Panchayat :

The Gram Panchayats have to play a key role in the entire process ; on whom, perhaps, the success depends.

According to Article 16(1) of the Act; the Gram Panchayat is made responsible for: identification of the projects in the Gram Panchayat area and execution and supervision of such works.

The Gram Panchayats shall, after considering the recommendations of the Gram Sabha and the Ward Sabhas prepare a development plan and maintain a self of possible works to be taken up under the scheme.

The most important point is that the Programme Officer at Block Level shall allot at least 50% of the works (Article 16(5)) to the Gram Panchayat.

Any sensible person in the state of Manipur and also in India would certainly like to see the Labour Budget prepared based on the findings of intensive house-to-house and village to village survey. You cannot and should not prepare Labour Budget on a table in a palacial room.

This requires hard and tough exercises and man to man interaction. The interaction with the Adhyakshas of Zilla Parlshads speaks completely "otherwise". The surreptitious move for domination and subtle game of insubordination continue to vitiate the entire atmosphere. In other words, they do "something for nothing" as a status symbol; not in the interest of the programme; some kind of obsession.

Another deplorable side of the story is the absence of Panchayat Ghars in the villages which are supposed to be very active and alert to discharge some of the routine works connected with:

• A: Registration
• B: Job Card
• C: Allotment of works
• D: Assets
• E: Muster roll
• F: Complaint
• G: Planning
• H: Accounting etc.

Besides we need to conduct both financial and physical audits from time to time apart from the preparation of the perspective plan of the village with a long term vision. Don't you like to make your village a Model Village; an ideal village during your life time?

Permissible works:

The Indian model in most cases is not suitable to Manipur. Remember, planning should begin from within and bottom, and should not be imposed. A time has come for Manipur to show to the whole world that we can run our own affairs well. Manipur Government may fail in State level planning but the Government may succeed in village planning.

While a few works have been listed as permissible works, the necessity for "flexibility with realism" is accepted to provide considerable scope for "additional works" under Rule No. 5.1.1 (IX) and (X) in compliance with circumstances, locations and seasons.

First let us admit the marked sectoral importance of agricultural sector (35% of the Gross State Domestic Product) in Manipur which in turn demands a very strong rural infrastructures such as:

• All Weather Rural Connectivity (Pucca rural roads)
• Micro irrigation
• Water harvesting
• Land improvement

(Priority Permissible Works for Manipur under NREGS)

To this may be added, rural pucca at, in spite of so-called total sanitation programme. We need a comprehensive and integrated intervention for "Total Health of Rural Economy". What is the harm for Manipur in having a new Pucca Rural Road Revolution as part of the NREGS? This could be a hopeful step.

Curiously the absence of Panchayat Ghars, perhaps, the net result of the gross neglect of the State Government, has now become a nice ground for increasing concentration of functions, funds and functionaries. Interestingly the administration of Manipur welcomes the outdated culture of 'top-down' while the national commitment to the 'bottom-up' is made clear again and again (73rd and 74th Amendment).

What we find today in Manipur is a powerful group of uninformed members or the PRIs; of course, ready and keen to work hard. The need of the hour is a thorough and sustained programme of capacity building of an stake holders, players and agencies on all fronts.

Let us not go by the beaten track. What is the harm for us to design a Manipur model of NREGS based on our own cultural, social and economic imperatives. Let us forget the 'growthless jobs' and 'Akash bills'.

Negative thinking and negative action is never part of Manipuri culture. Of overriding importance is the spirit with which we are going to act. The NREGS is never designed to make the influential men in good position richer at the cost of the poor.

The block development office in Manipur should now be restructured with sufficiently equipped Technical Support Cells to take care of technical components. Why should we allow the bitter experiences of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and the National Rural Health Mission to seal the rosy fate of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes. It is a crime to kill the baby in the womb of the mother.

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* Dr N. Mohendro Singh wrote this article for The Sangai Express. This article was webcasted on July 16, 2008.

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