This caused severe delay in payment of wages, and it also involved parking of funds at various levels.
Thiruvananthapuram: A recent clarification sought by the Ministry of Rural Development has added to the mystery surrounding the non-payment of MGNREGS dues to the state. It is not about the latest accounts (2016-17), but the Centre has dug up an old confusion, 'discrepancies' in the accounts of 2015-16, for which satisfactory explanation was already given. Is the Centre buying time to pay up its dues or is it planning to gradually cut down MGNREGS funding to the State? Already the Centre has cut down the state's work component this fiscal to 4.5 crore man-days to 6 crore man-days.
Officials in the state are as perplexed as the workers on the ground. "We are surprised by the latest query," said Mr M S Abdul Kalam Azad, the joint development commissioner of the State's MGNREGA Mission. "The issue, a minor one regarding the reconciliation of certain figures, was raised in 2016 itself. Then we had given an explanation, on the basis of which funds were promptly disbursed. Now they have come up with the same doubt," Mr Azad said. The State's response was dispatched on Tuesday.
Mr Azad said the State had issued fund transfer orders for all the work completed till March 31, 2017. "This is why no questions were asked about this fiscal's work," Mr Azad said.
Earlier, in the initial years of MGNREGS, the payment was an elaborate process. Each panchayat had to issue a cheque from its account for payment of wages to workers. Along with the cheque, the panchayat had to attach a list in the prescribed form showing the names of the workers, the bank account number of each worker and the amount due as wages for each worker. On receipt of the cheque with the list in the prescribed form, the bank shall credit the amount to the individual bank account of each worker.
This caused severe delay in payment of wages, and it also involved parking of funds at various levels. Therefore, to ensure transparency the Centre introduced Electronic Fund Management System (eFMS), which automated all processes involved in crediting the accounts of the beneficiaries. Kerala is the only state that is fully eFMS-enabled. Each worker is provided a bank account and eFMS will act as seamless payment mechanism which will automatically transfer the wages to the accounts leveraging the Core Banking infrastructure of banks. "This is a transparent process and is there for everyone to see," Mr Azad said.
