New Delhi: At a time when workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) are facing problems related to attendance and timely payment of wages, many states in India don’t have adequate number of ombudspersons in place, mandated under the job guarantee scheme to ensure effective grievance redressal, ThePrint has learnt.
Of the 740 districts in the country where the MGNREGS has been implemented, just 567 have ombudspersons, according to the rural development ministry’s portal for the rural employment scheme.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 provides for grievance redressal and, according to senior rural development ministry officials, each district where the MGNREGS is implemented should have an ombudsperson.
In some states, one ombudsperson has been allotted for two districts, one such grievance redressal officer in Andhra Pradesh told ThePrint.
In August last year, the rural development ministry issued revised guidelines for appointment of ombudspersons. But many states are yet to comply with them.
According to the ministry’s portal, states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam, etc, have several districts where no ombudsperson or NREGA lokpal has been appointed so far.
For instance, just 35 of 75 districts have an ombudsperson in Uttar Pradesh. In Madhya Pradesh, of the 52 districts where the MGNREGS has been implemented, just 12 have an ombudsperson, the ministry’s portal shows.
Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are among the top states when it comes to demand for work under MGNREGS.
In a written response to ThePrint, the rural development ministry via email said, “Recruitment, extension and removal of ombudsperson is a continuous process. States such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh have less number of ombudspersons but recruitment process still continues and (is) on different stages in these states.”
“The ministry has continuous follow-up with states for the recruitment of ombudsperson in their respective states during mid-term review, labour budget revision, etc,” it added.
The absence of ombudspersons, activists say, deprives workers of an opportunity to get their problems addressed.
Chakradhar Buddha, a senior researcher with LibTech India, a platform working towards improvement of public service delivery, told ThePrint that workers have been facing serious problems after the mandatory implementation of the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) for attendance at worksites and the Centre’s push towards Aadhaar-Based Payment System (ABPS) for settlement of wages.
“There is no effective grievance redressal mechanism in place in most districts. Despite the central government’s instructions in 2009, ombudsperson positions under Section 27 of the Act remain vacant in certain states,” he said.
Rambeti, a resident of Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, is one such worker. Speaking to ThePrint, Rambeti, who has been working under MGNREGS since 2006, said, “We don’t know about any ombudsperson. We go to our district office to file complaints about delay in payments. Most of us go to the block development officer or district officials for redressal of our problems.”
Even in states where ombudspersons have been appointed in districts, there are complaints of lack of basic facilities such as a computer and trained staff to upload reports.
A look at the work done by ombudspersons in states in the past two years shows that very few have filed action-taken reports and the mandatory quarterly and annual reports of the actions taken by them.
According to the rural development ministry’s portal, of 740 districts, just 114 districts have filed annual action taken reports this year (for fiscal 2022-23).
When asked about infrastructure provided to him, the ombudsman of Patiala district in Punjab, Gurnetar Singh, said: “I don’t have basic infrastructure such as a computer or desktop, a vehicle at my disposal for field visits, office staff, etc. Even the monthly remuneration has not been paid for the past three-four months. How do you expect an ombudsperson to work?”
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‘Basic requirements not met’
When it comes to acting on the orders of the ombudsman, the state machinery is not very prompt, said three ombudspersons ThePrint spoke to in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab.
This reflects in the data available on the rural development ministry’s portal. In this financial year, ombudspersons across the country ordered recovery (from officials or workers in case wrong payment is made) of around Rs 12.16 lakh, of which only Rs 4.89 lakh could be recovered as of 13 December.
Dr C. Dheeraja, associate professor and in-charge of Centre for Social Audit at the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, told ThePrint that earlier this year, the institute had carried out training of ombudspersons to tell them about their responsibilities and how they could settle complaints and upload information on the Ombudsman mobile application — launched by rural development minister Giriraj Singh last year. The app is meant to make the MGNREGS system more transparent.
“In many districts, ombudspersons don’t have computers and other infrastructure. The basic requirements are not met. A large number of ombudspersons don’t have any background in rural development or clear understanding of the MGNREGS. Now, several states such as Telangana and Tamil Nadu have asked ombudspersons to attend social audit hearings and work on the matters raised in these meetings,” she said.
‘Workers not aware of ombudspersons, few complaints addressed
According to the rural development ministry’s guidelines, there are 23 types of complaints or issues which an ombudsperson can look into. The complaints can be made directly to the ombudsperson or he/she can take suo motu cognisance of media reports or take up the issue during field inspections.
Complaints relating to delay in payment of wages, quality of work, release of funds, registration of households, worksite facilities, etc, can be made to ombudspersons. But not many workers are aware of the provision.
This is reflected in the number of complaints received by ombudspersons in this financial year.
According to the ministry’s portal, 2,874 complaints were received by ombudspersons in various states, of which 826 are pending as of 13 December. The complaint number is very low as there are around 14.36 crore active workers under the MGNREGS across India.
The gram pradhan of Malakpura in Jalaun district of UP, Amit (who goes only by his first name), told ThePrint: “In the district office, there is a room for the NREGA lokpal, but workers don’t know the name or number of the person appointed.”
The rural development ministry had said in its reply to ThePrint: “States have been directed to take various measures to (make) aware Mahatma Gandhi NREGA beneficiaries regarding the functioning of ombudsperson, like ombudsperson name and mobile number on citizen information boards, presence of ombudsperson in social audit public hearing, wall painting in gram panchayats, social media, etc.”
But ombudspersons in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh told ThePrint that little is being done in this regard.
The situation is the same in West Singhbhum in Jharkhand. Manoj Kumar Nayak, who has been working since 2017 under MGNREGS, said that there is an ombudsperson appointed for their district but not many know about him. “I have met him in meetings, but not many workers are aware about MGNREGS lokpal. Only some of us who are a little educated are aware about ombudspersons. Most workers file their complaints with MGNREGS helpdesk in the district and then at the district office.”
Apart from this, compliance of awards (as described in the guidelines) or orders passed by ombudspersons is very low, ombudspersons in three states said.
This September, Patiala ombudsman Gurnetar Singh ordered payment of unemployment allowance — which is to be paid by the state if workers are not provided employment within 15 days of demand being raised — to around 400 workers in 13 villages in the district.
Singh said it was for the first time such an order was passed in the state. “There were a lot of complaints regarding non-payment of unemployment allowance. The process to give the money to workers is yet to be completed,” said Singh, who is also a former district development and panchayat officer of the Punjab government.
Buddha pointed out that the primary goal in appointing ombudspersons is to introduce a neutral third party to assess MGNREGS implementation at the district level and address worker concerns.
“In cases where capable ombudspersons exist, their reliance on state machinery compromises independence, undermining their fundamental purpose,” he said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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