The Nalgonda district wing of the Andhra Pradesh Panchayati Raj Engineers' Association on Monday demanded a change in the social audit policy of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme by appointing technical personnel, in place of those deployed by the water management agencies. K. Shyam Sunder, president of the association, who is a Deputy Executive Engineer in Kodad, told a press conference here that he had raised the demand in a representation being sent to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. He said the PR Department engineers were facing problems when persons appointed by the water management agencies, who are mostly non-technical, evaluate the MGNREGS works which have already been checked by the department's vigilance and quality control wing. “This is nothing but deceiving and degrading the qualified engineering personnel,” he said. He clarified that the PR engineers were not against social audit of MGNREGS works, as it is in the interest of the people. While the department engineers were ready to take up the social audit work, they were not prepared to be ‘deceived' and ‘degraded' by unqualified persons. The social audit should be done in the presence of the public in villages or mandals. He sought immediate orders by the government on the demand. Otherwise, the department engineers would not take up MGNREGS works unless the non-technical personnel deployed by the water management agencies were removed. The association, he warned, would launch an agitation over the issue.
