Mani Shankar Aiyar downplays CAG's MNREGA report, admits improvement needed

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Mani ShankarAiyar today sought to downplay CAG's report on functioning of MNREGA especially in Maharashtra and Karnataka saying it was more of an "auditing and accounting exercise" but admitted that improvement was needed in the scheme's design.


"CAG is not taking into account the actual level of devolution. What they are looking at is whether the funds are being spent correctly or not. Theirs is an auditing and accounting exercise," the Rajya Sabha MP told reporters here.

The former panchayati raj minister said the report was not an investigation of the way the system operates though it is possible that in these two states they have been able to discover accounting and auditing errors which has to be "corrected".

Aiyar, who is heading an expert committee on Panchayati Raj, added that it is not that panchyats are responsible for misuse of money. There are other players who could be involved as well.

However, he did found fault the way the ambitious MNREGA programme has been designed, providing less number of days of work to the intended beneficiaries.

"If the design of the programme was correctly done in Delhi, why is that on an average only 47 days of work is being given. This is extraordinary. If you look at the figures of how many households are getting 100 days of work, you would find that households who need MNERGA most are getting between 10 to 15 per cent".

Aiyar said "improvement has to be made in design. MNREGA is desrcibed as a demand driven project. The fact is that amount of money made available to the panchayat determines the amount of work they will do. So there is dissatisfaction," he said, stressing on an effective panchayati raj for proper implementation of MNREGA.

He pointed out that Tripura, which is doing better in its implementation, is providing 36 per cent households 100 days of work.