Social audit committees will be formed in all the village panchayats in the district to monitor and carry out social audits of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP).
Disclosing this at a consultative meeting with district officials on constituting the committees here on Wednesday, T. Soundiah, Collector, said the committees have to be constituted as per the guidelines laid down by the State government.
The committees would monitor and audit the works taken up under the NREGP, the work registers and accounts at the village level. The committees should be formed through the Grama Sabhas. However, prior to the selection of the committee members at the Grama Sabhas, a separate team comprising the deputy block development officers and union supervisors should prepare a list of all eligible workers in the respective panchayats.
The lists forwarded to the Village Panchayat Presidents by the teams should be opened at the Grama Sabha meetings to be held on January 26. Six persons from the list should be selected by the Grama Sabha for the social audit committee. The committee should include two representatives from self-help groups/panchayat level federations, two persons with educational qualification above SSLC and two others who have worked for at least 50 days under the NREGP. Two representatives of the committee should be women and at least one member should be from the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe communities.
The names of the selected social audit committee members would be notified at the respective village panchayat and panchayat unions. Fifteen days’ time would be provided to enable the public to submit objections if any to the composition of the committees. After this mandatory period, the composition of the social audit committees would be finalised. Block Development Officers should conduct field inspection/verification of the selection process, Mr. Soundiah said and appealed to the officers to extend their full cooperation to complete the exercise well within the stipulated time frame.
The Collector also called upon the officers to ensure the smooth conduct of various competitions to be held in the rural libraries in the 164 panchayats, where the Anaithu Grama Anna Marumalarchi Thittam was implemented during 2006-07 and 2007-08. Oratorical, memory and map games would be organised at the libraries for school students in the third week of December. The competitions would be held in two categories, juniors (for students of standards I to VIII) and seniors (standards IX to Plus 2). Winners of the contests would be given cash rewards of Rs. 200 and Rs.150 for the I and II prizes respectively.
The Project Director of the District Rural Development Agency J. Dhanasekaran, the Assistant Director of Panchayats Mohammed Jaffar, commissioners of all panchayat unions, deputy block development officers and panchayat union supervisors attended the meeting.
