Employment guarantee council rejig sidelines Dreze and Roy

Politics seems to have got the better of other considerations in the composition of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC), a statutory body under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, with members Jean Dreze and Aruna Roy (also members of the National Advisory Council) facing removal.

Their offence seems to have been that they have angered the party members in the council with whom they had an open confrontation in one of the last meetings of the CEGC. The new council would have all the old members whose terms have been renewed though Dreze and Roy have been left out.

The new list which is likely to be announced soon has the approval of the party leadership according to sources and was approved by C P Joshi days before his exit as rural development minister.

The two activists have, however, been kept on as special invitees, that is they can be called if the minister so wishes. A member said that their removal was because rules don’t allow more than three terms. However the NREGA rules don’t restrict the terms of members. It only restricts the term of a council to one year. While Roy's term has been renewed thrice, Dreze has been renominated only twice so far.The CEGC was set up for the first time through a notification in 2007.

The rules, however, say that the 15 nominated members should be representatives of panchayats, village level workers bodies and grass root organisations rather than MPs from ruling party as they are now.

Former Congress MP and CEGC member Madhusudan Mistry had taken on both activists in the August meeting of the council accusing them of regarding themselves as architects of the Act and the council as their fiefdom. The tirade was allowed on the agenda of the council by C P Joshi and it was triggered by a note circulated by the activists saying that a panel full of Congress members inspired no confidence.

NREGA Section 10(3) (d) says that the Central Employment Guarantee Council shall include “not more than fifteen non-official members representing Panchayati Raj Institutions, organisations or workers and disadvantaged groups.” This is blatantly violated in the existing council which is being renewed as it is except for two members.

The NREGA (Central Council) Rules says “12 members to be nominated by the central government from panchayati raj institutions, organisations of workers and disadvantaged groups”. Two of them have to be chairpersons of district panchayats.

A look at the actual list of fifteen non-official members shows a different reality. It has Charan Das Mahant, MP (Congress), Bhakta Charan Das, MP (Congress), Nirmal Khatri, MP (Congress), Narayan Singh Amlabe, MP (Congress), M I Shanavas, MP (Congress), Ranee Narah, MP (Congress), Pradeep Kumar Majhi, MP (Congress), R Dhruvanarayana, MP (Congress), Ramesh Pandurang Gawande, MP/MLA (Congress), Madhusudan Mistry, former MP (Congress), Sanjay Dixit, MP (Congress), Renuka Chowdhury, MP (Congress), Sabina Yeasmin, Zila Parishad, and Ratan Ben Yadav, Zila Parishad.

The council is supposed to monitor the scheme and present annual reports in parliament. But this has not happened. In fact most recommendations of the council have been ignored in the past. Last year working groups were formed under the council, two of them under Dreze and Roy and these made recommendations on NREGA wages and transparency. Most of these have remained on paper.

The Ministry officials said that the council was being reconstituted but did not confirm reports of the ouster of the two NAC members by Joshi.

Nikhil De, activist and colleague of Aruna Roy, said no one has heard from the CEGC for a long time. “If either Dreze or Roy have been removed then they should have been informed”, he said. He added that it was possible as the former rural development minister had reason to be upset with the duo. Dreze refused to comment on the matter.