In an exclusive interview to The Telegraph, Union secretary for rural development B.K. Sinha refused to give out names, but insisted that the team would comprise “very experienced people” who would see how the system worked and identify deficiencies.
“We are in the process of issuing orders for an expert committee to visit the state to make a full assessment of the scheme,” said Sinha, who has recently toured Jharkhand after the killings of activist Niyamat Ansari in a Latehar village on March 2 and labourer Subal Mahto in Bokaro on February 18.
Sinha said fictitious muster rolls of the kind he saw in Niyamat’s village of Jerua should have been detected if systems were in place. “It’s only due to bad management that a secretary needs to go supervise them,” he said.
As for punitive action against Jharkhand, Sinha said his department was weighing several options. It could issue directives under Section 27(1) of NREGA or, if it wasn’t satisfied with the murder investigations, it could ask a central agency to take over the case. “If things get worse, we can stop the flow of funds,” Sinha said, articulating for the first time something the state government has been long fearing.
While some politicians have alleged Niyamat was involved in brokering illegal deals in forest land, the state has admitted in the Assembly that he was killed by Maoists. Labourer Subal died after he was beaten up by contractors.
“Naxalites,” said Sinha, “are an alibi for officials not to go into villages. They are an alibi for corruption.”
He said while contractors were forbidden from participating in MGNREGS, some states did involve contractors. “But only in Jharkhand do they commit murder.”
Sinha also revealed that the sanction of four posts for technical staff hadn’t been accepted by Jharkhand. Panchayats were subverted on the excuse of lack of expertise and manpower, a far cry from Andhra Pradesh, another Naxalite-hit state, where MGNREGS was run efficiently by self-help groups.
“Success of the programme depends of the institutional set-up… In Jharkhand there is no anxiety to do things the right way,” he added.