Bengaluru, Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Eshwar Khandre on Monday directed officials to issue showcause notices to 308 Panchayat Development Officers , 74 taluk executive officers and 12 deputy secretaries for the delays and negligence in disbursing wages to workers under the VB G RAM G scheme.
In written instructions to the department secretary and the Chief Executive Officers of 12 Zilla Panchayats, Khandre expressed displeasure over delays in wage payments across 311 gram panchayats in 12 districts, despite clear directions that workers under the scheme must be paid within 15 days and warnings that the concerned PDOs would be held responsible for any failure to meet the deadline.
Taking a serious view of the failure to pay wages to unskilled workers even after funds had been released to gram panchayats, the minister said such negligence by the officials was discouraging people from seeking employment under the scheme.
He regretted that people were migrating in search of work even during drought conditions.
The delays have been reported in 311 gram panchayats across 12 districts: Bagalkot , Belagavi , Chamarajanagar , Chikkamagaluru , Dakshina Kannada , Hassan , Kodagu , Mandya , Mysuru , Shivamogga , Udupi and Vijayapura , the Minister said in a release.
Khandre has directed the authorities to issue show-cause notices and obtain explanations from the concerned PDOs, the taluk executive officers responsible for monitoring the process, and the deputy secretaries of the 12 Zilla Panchayats.
{{/usCountry}}Khandre has directed the authorities to issue show-cause notices and obtain explanations from the concerned PDOs, the taluk executive officers responsible for monitoring the process, and the deputy secretaries of the 12 Zilla Panchayats.
{{/usCountry}}He also instructed the department secretary and the Chief Executive Officers of the 12 Zilla Panchayats to take steps to ensure that wage payments are not delayed in any gram panchayat in the future.
The minister said the state government implemented the scheme from July 1 to support the rural poor, disadvantaged communities, members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and landless agricultural labourers, and to prevent distress migration.
He pointed out that the Centre's change in the funding ratio from 90:10 under MGNREGA to 60:40 under VBG Ram G had increased the financial burden on the state government. Despite this, the state introduced the scheme with the objective of supporting vulnerable rural households.
Khandre warned that administrative negligence and delays in wage disbursement would undermine the very purpose of the scheme.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.