BJP blames state for delay in Centre releasing NREGA funds

BHUBANESWAR: The BJP on Saturday slammed the BJD government for allegedly failing to submit utilisation certificates and for not fulfilling various norms of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) on time, resulting in the delay in the release of funds by the Centre to Odisha.
In response to a letter written by chief minister Naveen Patnaik to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 1 seeking the release of pending amount of more than Rs 1,700 crore under MGNREGA, BJP national spokesperson and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi told a news conference that the state had miserably failed to implement the rural job scheme and had not followed due procedures.
Aparajita said the Odisha government did not submit the audit report and audited utilisation certificates for the first half of the year on time for getting the second instalment of funds, which is the main reason behind the delay in release of money. The government submitted its proposal for funds by providing the audit reports to the Union rural development ministry only on November 1, she said.
Aparajita had last worked as joint secretary in the Union ministry of rural development (which operates the MGNREGA) before joining politics in 2018. She said while it is mandatory to have an ombudsman in each district under the scheme, the state has not appointed such an official in eight of the 30 districts.
She alleged that social audits have pointed out funds misappropriation to the tune of Rs 4.80 crore under the scheme. However, the state has managed to recover only Rs 1.58 crore at a rate of 33 per cent, which is very low, she said. The state needs a time-bound recovery plan, she added.
Though timely completion of projects is one of the key indicators of the state’s performance under the scheme, just 21 per cent works taken up in 2020-2021 and 3 per cent in 2021-2022 were completed. The state is yet to respond to 21 audit objections raised by the ministry in implementation of the scheme, the Bhubaneswar MP said.
Reacting to Aparajita’s statement, BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra said doing cheap politics on every issue has become a habit of the Odisha BJP. “Based on the Odisha chief minister’s letter, the Government of India has already released the funds. It would have been better if the leaders of Odisha BJP had done their homework before speaking to the media in this regard and embarrassing themselves,” Patra said.
The Centre released Rs 875 crore on Thursday, three days after Naveen wrote to Modi. seeking early release of Rs 1,088.72 crore towards payment of wages and Rs 710.81 crore as material component. He had said timely payment of wages is a fundamental guarantee under MGNREGA.
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