THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT IS PREPARED TO OVERHAUL THE MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME /ACT FOR EMPLOYMENT IN THE RURAL AREAS

The union Ministry of rural development has asserted that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural development Guarantee Scheme is a demand driven employment scheme and that responsibility for its implementation rests with the Governments of the concerned states and union territories. The ministry stated the updating and deletion of job cards is a regular exercise carried out by states and UTs.job cards are mainly deleted for reasons such as fake , duplicate or incorrect entries, families permanently shifting out of a gram panchayat, reclassification of a gram panchayat as urban, or cases where the sole member named on a job card has died. It added that while deleting or removing workers or job cards, states and UTs are required to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Act and the standard operating procedure issued by the ministry, so that no job card of a deserving or eligible household is wrongly deleted or cancelled. To ensure transparency and accountability in the implementation of the scheme and the Act, the ministry has asked states and UTs to ensure the capture of attendance at site of works through the National mobile monitoring system app. This involves two timed stamped, geo tagged photographs of the workers in a day for all works except the individual beneficiary works through the NMMS with effect from January 1, 2023.The action taken by the state governments in this behalf of the corrective action and data indicate respond by the total job cards deleted across the three states and year wise figures tabled in the Loksabha Punjab deleted a total of, 527728 job cards between 2019-20 to 2024-25, in comparison to Himachal Pradesh deleted 60629 job cards during the same period, while the Haryana removed 55126.Punjab has emerged as the biggest contributor to identification and the cancellation of fake or duplicate job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme over this period, when compared to neighboring states of Haryana and the Himachal Pradesh, even as the Central Government prepares to overhaul the scheme:- Er Fateh chand Guleria, Director RTI welfare Association registered number HPCD, 3552 , Bilaspur Himachal Pradesh phone number, 9459334377