Centre Asked all States to Appoint Ombudsman to Redress Grievances Related to MGNREGA

The government has instructed all states to appoint Ombudsman at district level to redress grievances related to implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA). Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said that the government is also making extensive use of Information and Communication Technology, ICT to enhance transparency in the implementation of MGNREGA. Payment of wages has been made mandatory through bank accounts and states have been asked to enhance ICT based rural banking services in order to make wage disbursement more transparent. He said CBI investigation in one case of misappropriation of MGNREGA fund in Orissa has been ordered during past three years. 

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is an Indian job guarantee scheme, enacted by legislation on August 25, 2005. The scheme provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work -related unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage of 120 rupees per day in 2009 prices. The Central government outlay for scheme is 40000 crore rupees in Financial Year 2010-11.

This act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural people, primarily semi or un-skilled work to people living in rural India, whether or not they are below the Poverty line. Around one-third of the stipulated work force is women. The law was initially called the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) but was renamed on 2 October 2009.