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States desist from paying unemployment allowance

NEW DELHI: State governments in general have desisted from paying unemployment allowances to below the poverty level (BPL) job-seekers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).

At least that was the finding of a national study on the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in the implementation of NREGA during April to December 2007 by an NGO, PRIA.

As much as 68 per cent of the 4,680 households surveyed in 20 districts of 13 States covered by the NREGA had not been provided with a job within the stipulated period of 15 days as specified under the law. Yet, the state authorities had denied payment of unemployment allowance to them.

The functionaries of PRIA, Manoj Rai and Rakesh Kumar Sinha, maintained that no beneficiary under the scheme had been paid unemployment allowance by the state governments in violation of the law. The States surveyed were Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The reason was these States were unwilling to dole out the money.

Secondly, such payments reflected poorly on the performance of the state and the officials concerned, who could invite penal action.

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