Social audit of MGNREGA work to be conducted: Minister

Patna: The rural development department (RDD) has decided to conduct a social audit of assets created and work carried out under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) at the panchayat level in all districts.State RDD minister Shrawan Kumar said social audit society (SAS) has been set up in every district to conduct the social audit, which is a third party requisitioned for the purpose. He added that the Centre has sanctioned slightly over Rs 9.47 crore to meet the cost of expenditure involved against over Rs 10 crore demanded.“It is necessary that the transparent and impartial social audit of the work done at the panchayat level under MGNREGA is done.

If the money is released for expenditure on the work undertaken, then it is absolutely necessary that total transparency is maintained in the implementation and responsibility is also fixed,” Kumar said, adding that the social audit would help in controlling corruption so that needy persons benefit from developmental activities.The works taken up for implementation under MGNREGA are aimed at providing livelihood protection and creation of viable assets.

The works done include water conservation, agriculture development, sanitation and creation of basic rural infrastructure. The other activities cover construction of ponds, wells, rural roads, school toilets, sports grounds, anganwadi buildings and check dams, besides carrying out plantation work.

Under MGNREGA schemes, a desiring person gets 100-day work and matching remuneration for it.Since the money required for conducting the social audit has been released, it will help greatly in carrying out the audit work and also give a fillip to development work.