Congress accuses Centre of carrying out ‘planned euthanasia’ of MGNREGA

The Central government is carrying out a “planned euthanasia” of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, or MGNREGS, by delaying funding social audits, the Congress alleged on Friday.

This came hours after The Hindu reported that the social audits, the scheme’s internal mechanism meant to combat corruption, is ailing under a fund crunch and untrained personnel.

The sole responsibility of the social audit unit is to flag cases of malpractice. Following this, the state government recovers the money and reprimands the officials responsible. The report claims that the credibility of the audit process is under threat due to the dismal recovery of embezzled funds.

Data from the Ministry of Rural Development shows that less than 14% of the amount flagged by auditors for the ongoing financial year has been recovered so far. While the social audit unit flagged misappropriation of Rs 27.5 crore, the amount came down to Rs 9.5 crore after action was taken in some cases. However, only Rs 1.31 crore, which is 13.8% of the total, has been recovered.

In the previous financial year, only Rs 18 crore, or 20.8% of the flagged amount of Rs 86.2 crore was recovered. The year saw the recovery of only Rs 26 crore, or 15.2%, out of the flagged amount...

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