Bhubaneswar: In an informal interface held at Forest Rest House, Sambalpur on 29th April with the research team from the Planning Commission that has come to evaluate the performance of NREGP in Sambalpur district, the representatives from the NGOs like ODAF, Gram Vikash, OSAA, Biswa, Ahwaan etc suggested few changes in the existing scheme(OREGS) formulated by the State government under NREGA. They have demanded for putting in place a proper grievance redressal mechanism and clearly delineate the provisions for conducting social audit by the Palli Sabha.

In a move to evaluate the performance NREGP the Planning Commission of India is studying twenty districts through out the country. Two districts namely Sambalpur and Kandhamal of Orissa have been chosen for the purpose. A team constituting Dr K. S. Rao and Dr Sadananda Sahoo both from Institute of Applied Man Power Research (IAMR), an autonomous body of Planning Commission is camping in Sambalpur to take stalk of the implementation scenario of the high profile scheme.

"The objectives of the evaluation are to monitor implementation of NREGA, identify implementation challenges faced by govt., local administration, and PRIs etc; to assess impact of NREGA on wages, employment durable assets, quality of life of villages and house holds; to analyse impact of the scheme on migrant and landless labour, women, SC/ST population, and other weaker sections" says Dr. Sahho of the team. The team is in process of interacting with the District Collector, Project Director, DRDA, block and Panchayat authorities along with meeting the target population and the civil society organisations.

Naktideul and Bamra are the two blocks chosen for taking random sampling. Near about six GPs from the two blocks, some are above average, average and below average in their performance according to the government statistics have been identified for evaluation. The team has also visited work sites and interacted with people possessing or not-possessing job cards.

Rajkishore Mishra, State Advisor to the Commission on Right to Food appointed by Supreme Court said "OREGS, which is otherwise a well thought out document, falters miserably on two central aspects under NREGA, namely conducting social audit and the grievance redressal mechanism. While the central guideline on NREGA dealt in detail, laying down step by step procedure for conducting Social Audit by the Gram Sabha, the state scheme only faintly deals with the matter. Similarly where the act and the central guideline mandates that the Programme Officer, District Project Coordinator and the State Employment Council to be the authorities for dealing with the complaints of the people in an hierarchical arrangement and in a time bound manner, the state scheme provides for installation of a 'complaint box' and designates the Collector as the person at the district level for dealing with the complaints within fifteen days. It does not make any mention about the role of the State Employment Council in the matter."

Dr. G.P. Nayak, retd. Professor of economics from Sambalpur University alleged that there is discrimination among men and women with regards to the disbursement of wages in realty though the act mandates equal wages to both."

The Civil Society Organisations also urged for immediate constitution of the State Employment Guarantee Council by the State government; taking necessary steps to activating the Palli Sabhas to identify the work under OREGS; providing unemployment allowance to the people who have not got jobs under the scheme even after applying the same. It was alleged by the group that in more than one instance the people deserving to get the unemployment allowance have not got the same.

Dr. Sahoo from the evaluation team told that discussion with the civil society gave us a different perspective to the policy and implementation of OREGS.