Jairam Ramesh advocates for special audit of rural development works

Raipur, July 22, 2011

Considering large number of complaints regarding misuse of funds pertaining to rural development schemes, the Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has advocated for special auditing of the works under such schemes by Comptroller and Accountant General (CAG). Ramesh, who is two-day Chhattisgarh visit from Friday, expressed this view while he was addressing workers at Congress Bhawan.

“The Centre allocates highest amount of budget for rural development after Army, but whether the state government are using the funds appropriately for the given purpose or not is the most challenging task before me. It is also important for me to know whether the end beneficiaries are getting advantage of the schemes or not,” Ramesh said.

He informed that the Centre has made a provision of Rs 90000 crore for rural development. “Chhattisgarh has received Rs 3500 crore. The Union government has kept about eight states including Chhattisgarh on its priority list for rural development. To ensure transparency, I have suggested for special audits of works under rural development schemes in all these state,” he added.

For effective implementation of the schemes, he emphasised on framing of strategy and allocation of budget at block level. He said he would also put this suggestion before the Planning Commission of India.

On the occasion, the Congress leaders informed the union minister that several labourers were not getting timely payment under Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA).

The cases of delayed payment are prominent in remote areas which lack bank and post office facilities, they said. To avoid delay, they suggested for constitution of committee of sarpanchs of particular areas who could disburse cash payment. Ramesh assured the partymen to consider their advice.

The party leaders present in the Congress Bhawan during arrival of Ramesh were the PCC president Nandkumar Patel, leader of the Opposition at state Assembly Ravindra Choubey, Vidya Charan Shukla, Satyanarayan Sharma, legislators Paresh Bagbahra, Ambika Markam, Dr Premsai Singh and Kuldeep Juneja along with RMC Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak, PCC general secretary incharge Subhash Sharma, CC spokespersons duo Rajendra Tiwari and Ramesh Varlyani, Vidhan Mishra, Raipur Urban DCC president Inderchand Dhariwal, PMC working president Kalpana Patel, PCC media incharge Mahendra Chhabra, Dr Niranjan Haritwal, Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, Rajkumari Diwan, Ramlal Bhardwaj, Pankaj Sharma, Sanjay Pathak, Satish Jain, etc.