NEW DELHI: The Government was in the dock in the Rajya Sabha for tardy implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which seeks to provide 100 mandays of employment to poor families in 200 identified districts.

Cutting across party lines, members pointed to the lack of funds, lack of transparency, lack of monitoring, corruption in giving job cards and unemployment allowance, and discrimination against women and single beneficiaries. Members lauded the scheme as "well intentioned" but criticised the tardy implementation, "bureaucratisation" and ignoring of gram sabhas.

Wasting on publicity

Initiating a short-duration discussion on "the situation arising out of the tardy implementation in some States," V. Narayanasamy (Congress) described the scheme as "innovative" but said there were a "lot of lacunae" in it including bungling by officials and political parties that were selectively choosing beneficiaries. He bemoaned the lack of transparency and monitoring, and alleged that States were wasting huge funds on publicity.

M. Venkiah Naidu (BJP) said the scheme was drawn from Maharashtra and was a substitute for the food-for-work programme. He alleged that the Government had diluted the scheme by implementing it in only 200 districts. It had put the burden of giving unemployment allowance on States that were already facing a resource crunch. There was no remedial measure for grievances. The gram sabhas, nodal agency, were not functioning effectively. District Collectors and Block Development Officers did the entire work, which was against the spirit of the scheme. "Bureaucrats had taken control of the scheme."

The former Rural Development Minister sought to know the Government's Action Plan for expanding the scheme to all districts in the country.

He also wanted to know how much money was required for implementation of the scheme and what wasthe budgetary provision. He suggested a social audit and penal provision in the law for tardy and non-implementation.

`Loopholes'

CPI (M) member Moinul Hassan pointed out the "loopholes'' in the definition of a family. It did not recognise micro-families and individual including women. There were no crèches or medical facilities at the workplace.

P.G. Narayanan (AIADMK) sought inclusion of Dharampuri and Ramanathapuram districts in Tamil Nadu under the scheme.

BJP members from Rajasthan, including Lalit Kishore Chautrvedi and Gian Prakash Pilania, sought expansion of the scheme in the desert State.

Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who sat through the entire three-hour discussion, will reply on Wednesday.

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