Only 25% workers found working at MGNREGA sites in Jharkhand: audit report

Only 25 per cent of workers were found at the sites where projects under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) were underway in Jharkhand, as per a government audit report.

There were also instances where people whose names were not on the muster roll but were found working at the sites, it said.

''As per total muster roll issued while conducting concurrent social audit total 1,59,608 workers were supposed to be found working at the worksites but only 40,629 (25.45 per cent) of worker were actually found working at the worksites,'' it said.

Names of 1,787 people were not found on the muster rolls, but they were working at the sites, said the Concurrent Social Audit Report 2021-2022 of the Jharkhand government's Rural Development Department. Total 29,059 schemes were verified in 1,118 panchayat areas in all 24 districts by the audit, it said.

In Gumla, 731 people were on the rolls for 92 schemes that were audited, but only 20 workers (3 per cent) were found at the sites, as per the report.

In Dhanbad, 7,859 people were on the rolls for 1,348 schemes that were audited, but only 421 workers (5 per cent) were found at the sites, it said.

Only 10 per cent workers were found at the sites in Dumka and Godda, the audit report added.

The audit, done in two phases, was completed in October 2021, it said.

In the first phase, 500 panchayats were undertaken, and in the second phase, 743 panchayats were audited.

As a part of the audit, a team of four persons visited each panchayat area for two-three days and verified the worksites, interacted with the workers whose names were on muster rolls but not found at the site that day, and also verified any complaint received from the workers, the report said.

The social audit teams verified whether work was going on at the sites, the number of workers as per the rolls, the actual number of people working at the sites and facilities being provided to them, among others.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)