The Hindu : New Delhi News : A model panchayat mirrors NREGS success

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A model panchayat mirrors NREGS success

Sunny Sebastian

Rajasthan has made a beginning: Ashok Gehlot

VIJAYPURA (Rajsamand): Showcasing Rajasthan’s success story in the much talked about National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was an intense one-day event which the organisers chose to call “mela” here in Vijaypura, a hitherto nondescript village in Rajsamand district along the Ajmer-Udaipur stretch of the Delhi-Mumbai National Highway No.8.

The number of activities for the day, which preceded a ten-day social audit padyatra by activists in villages across the area, included site visits by the Union and State Ministers for Rural Development, Union and State Secretaries for NREGS and Rural Development peppered by entertainment of the people’s kind—hela khayal, songs of Lehngas and Manganiars, and the by now very popular puppet shows of the “Sangathan” (local reference for the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan).

But then why Vijaypura? “That is because many things have been experimented upon here successfully. Vijaypura has been a model panchayat for NREGS, maintaining all stipulated norms of transparency, accountability and efficiency. The local Sarpanch, Kalu Ram, is a Dalit who got elected to a general seat. A member of the MKSS, he has many firsts to his credit from winning the election through a transparent campaign that incurred an expense of only Rs.800 to adhering to his election manifesto and the implementation of the transparency provisions,” says Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy, the force behind the whole concept.

“If it can be done in Vijaypura, why not elsewhere?” asked Nikhil Dey, her associate at MKSS. He was confident that when it could be carried out in one panchayat it was possible not only in all 9,189 panchayats of Rajasthan but also in hundreds of thousands of panchayats across India.

The intermittent rain which got intense when Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot arrived at the venue for the closing plenary session came as bonus perhaps, as the huge turnout of village men and women made good use of the event, registering their complaints at the grievance redress tent and checking with the panchayat authorities their entitlements and also freaking out with children at the food stalls.

It was also time to celebrate for the activists of the MKSS and the nascent School for Democracy over the victory of the very sentiment behind advocating and pioneering a revolutionary concept such as job guarantee, which stood vindicated with the return to power of the United Progressive Alliance Government with an added majority. It was a sort of thanksgiving meeting for Mr. Gehlot and Union Rural Development Minister C. P. Joshi, who happens to be from Rajsamand though he got elected to the Lok Sabha this time from Bhilwara.

“NREGS has the strength to change the face of the country. Rajasthan has made a beginning,” Mr. Gehlot said after the other speakers had finished with the problem-solution rounds and suggestions for the future action plan, broad-basing the job scheme to include forestation, sanitation and public health and irrigation and water conservation.

“Rajasthan, a perennially drought-prone State, used to get a meagre Rs.250 crore only for drought relief in the past but now each district can claim Rs.250 to 300 crore a year under NREGS,” the Chief Minister pointed out.

In fact, the Chief Minister was only reiterating what Rita Sharma, Union Secretary for Rural Development, said at the plenary session. She revealed that nearly one-fifth of the NREGS allocation of Rs.27,000-28,000 crore went to Rajasthan and 40 per cent of those who sought jobs got 100 days’ employment a year here.

It was not just the money as the empowering of the rural poor which is triggering off a whole lot of economic and social activities. “It is an enormous exercise which is bringing about development and change. As a result of the job scheme, the rural economy has started showing signs of recovery. Hundreds and thousands of bank and post office accounts have been opened in the names of villagers. Guaranteed work with a series of entitlements has made a noticeable difference. Also, the mandatory provisions of transparency under the Right to Information Act are helping them beat the chronic inability of the system to deliver,” noted Mr. Dey.

What was remarkable at the mela was perhaps the jubilation of the public even when the payments in NREGS have been pending at some places since May. . But they all were thankful about the Act which is making a big difference to their life!

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