HYDERABAD: Nine months into its implementation, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) seems to have thrown up opportunities and challenges across different States.

The rural employment guarantee programme has achieved some of its goalposts at least in a few States, while it got bogged down in problems in others, according to experts who spoke at a two-day media workshop on NREGA organised by the Centre for Science and Environment and Action Aid here in the last two days.

Mediapersons from different States attended the workshops.

Main concerns

Some of the concerns expressed were in the areas of participation of Panchayat Raj institutions, checking migration, creation of productive assets, rejection of job cards en masse, caste differences and payment of unemployment allowance.

There were issues of water conservation not being given high priority in most States barring Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand as well as general lack of transparency and accountability.

There was no instance of using Right To Information Act.

Though Andhra Pradesh came in for praise, especially for using IT in tracking the implementation of the programme and maintaining transparency, it was not without "issues and concerns," as admitted by Director of Andhra Pradesh Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme Dr. A. Murali himself.

These include lack of awareness with the poor still unable to demand work, problem in checking migration, delay in payments and provision of worksite facilities, poor participation of disabled and the elderly.

On the positive side, apart from IT, work time motion studies were being carried out, a special rural schedule of standard rates for works taken up was introduced, equal wages were paid to men and women, a streamlined social audit was in place and payment to individuals done directly through post office accounts, he added.

K. S. Gopal of Centre for Environment Concerns stressed the need for infusing new ideas and generating confidence among the poor.

Richard Mahapatra of CSE, Manas Ranjan and Umi Daniel of Action Aid also spoke.

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