NEW DELHI: The Union Government has asked the State Governments to evolve a strict vigilance mechanism to ensure accuracy of muster rolls in the rural development programmes.

Presiding over a regional performance review meeting for northern and western States here on Tuesday, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said social auditing and strict vigilance by monitoring committees would act as a deterrent against irregularities.

The performance of various rural development programmes in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal was reviewed at the meeting. Reviewing the nature of work undertaken under the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, the State representatives were told that measures should be taken to see that water conservation works got priority.

So far, 15,000 water conservation works have been completed in Uttar Pradesh while the number has crossed 50,000 in Rajasthan.

The Minister said over 1.9 crore people had sought employment under the employment guarantee scheme as against the target of one crore and the figure is expected to cross 1.25 crore in the current financial year as the demand for jobs will go up substantially in the coming lean period.

Mr. Singh said the Ministry incurred an expenditure of Rs. 100 crore a day on the scheme and Rs. 60 crore a day was disbursed as the cash component among the workers.

So far, 2.68 lakh development works had been taken up under the NREG scheme and Rs. 4,940 crore released.

"We have not had to pay unemployment compensation to anyone because there are enough jobs to be taken up. And, the States ensure that there are jobs because unemployment wages have to be paid from the State fund," Mr. Singh said.

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