NREGS lies in lurch in Kishtwar, 10.38 cores misused

SHEIKH NASIR HUSSAIN
Kishtwar: Even three years after the ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was launched in the state, the authorities are yet to complete the selection of daily labourers. As a result, NREGS has joined the long list of various centrally sponsored schemes, which start with very high hopes but meet defeat somewhere down the line.
This scheme, NREG, was meant to uplift the poor and downtrodden section of the society by providing them an assured chance of livelihood. However, because of the general apathy of the government officials, as well as the high-handedness of the influential and non-deserving people, the actual intended beneficiaries of this scheme have been left in the lurch.
Besides not selecting the desired number of daily workers, the district authorities have also not been able to finish the distribution of job cards and allocation of projects to different villages.
The NREGS Act provides that the government should allocate each household an opportunity to do unskilled manual work for at least 100 days during a financial year. If the scheme is not able to provide that allotted days of work to the household, the said household is given daily unemployment allowance. The Central government has released Rs 10.52 crore to the district under this scheme last year.
However, the money, as expected, is being spent with gross violation of norms. Sources within the government department inform that the financial assistance meant for the poor is being disbursed to those who either are studying in schools or having their own business. In IAY assistance is being given to those who own their houses. People have even been given money to raise another storey of their house, under this scheme.
In fact, it is alleged that most of the bills drawn in the name of this scheme were actually never executed by the department.
It is also pertinent to mention here that the time limit to complete the model village at Huller also expired this month but the model village still remains a dream for the villagers.