By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: While India’s biggest ever rural employment guarantee scheme – popularly known as NREGA – is not getting impressive results from Bihar, one of very poor states in the country, an official document discloses the state government has spent about Rs 35 lakh in one district alone on advertisement of the scheme and training of the concerned personnel.
The Rural Development Department of Samastipur district, which is implementing National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the district, has spent Rs 15,55,872 on advertisement of the scheme from 2006-07 to 2009-10. This is not all.
The same department held a training program for the newly recruited personnel for implementation of the scheme following a letter in this regard from the Rural Development Dept, Bihar Govt. For the one-month long training program (08/10/07 to 07/11/07), the Samastipur administration hired the services of 22 NGOs for management of lodging and food for the trainees. On this training alone Rs 18,70,000 was spent.
Moreover, the department hired the services of three NGOs to conduct photography during the training. On the photography, the government spent Rs 1,43,280.
These all information was accessed through an RTI petition by Delhi-based 22-year-old veteran RTI activist Afroz Alam Sahil.
This is the case of just one district. One can guess what would be happening in the entire state.