GULBARGA: Former Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council and dissident Janata Dal (S) MLA B.R. Patil on Wednesday accused the Government of squandering a golden opportunity to fully utilise the funds provided by the Union Government under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and provide employment to agricultural labourers and the poor who were without work due to the drought.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Patil said Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who had blamed the Union Government for neglecting the State while sanctioning funds for development activities, had devoted little or no attention to ensure the full utilisation of the funds provided by the Union Government under the NREGS for providing a minimum of 100 days assured employment to the poor and needy in rural areas of Chitradurga, Davangere, Gulbarga, Raichur and Bidar districts.

He pointed out that both the Chief Minister and the Panchayati Raj and Rural Development Minister C.M. Udasi had not conducted a review of the implementation of the programmes in these districts and identified the problems encountered by the officials in fully utilising the funds available under the NREGS.

Mr. Patil said the people deprived of any employment due to the drought conditions in districts such as Gulbarga had started migrating and the Government had done nothing to stop this by taking up employment generation works.

Mr. Patil said as per information available with him the Government took four months to release its small share of funds for the project.

In Gulbarga district, of the Rs. 28.55 crore released for NREGS, only Rs. 5.51 crore had been given to the implementing agencies. Of this Rs. 3 crore had been spent for employment generating programmes.

Accusing the State Government of violating the Union Government norms in taking up works under the NREGS, Mr. Patil said in Gulbarga district, the implementing agencies had in violation of the guidelines of the Union Government taken up the construction of cement concrete roads in the 337 gram panchayats.

It was a fact that there was little opportunity to provide employment to manual labour as the most of the work was done by machinery.

Although the Government had prepared a list of priority of works to be taken up, he said the implementing officers had violated the norms.

Priority was given to water conservation works, drought-proofing works, including afforestation and micro and minor irrigation.

Laying of roads did not find a place in the list of priority of works, he said.

Mr. Patil said the Government should immediately increase the minimum wages paid under the NREGS to the level of the minimum wages paid under the scheme in Kerala.

While the minimum wages was fixed at Rs. 69 a day, the Kerala Government had increased it to Rs. 120 a day. In Andhra Pradesh, the minimum wages under the programme was fixed at Rs. 80, he added.

One of the reasons for people's reluctance to demand work under the NREGS in the districts where the programme was being implemented was the low minimum wages being paid now, he said.

He said elected representatives in the panchayati raj institutions had practically no role to play in the implementation of the project in the State.

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