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New Delhi:At a time when workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) are facing problems related to attendance and timely payment of wages, many states in India dont have adequate number of ombudspersons in place, mandated under the job guarantee scheme to ensure effective grievance redressal, ThePrint has learnt...
Of the 740 districts in the country where the MGNREGS has been implemented, just 567 have ombudspersons, according to the rural development ministrys portal for the rural employment scheme...
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 provides for grievance redressal and, according to senior rural development ministry officials, each district where the MGNREGS is implemented should have an ombudsperson...
Dheeraja, associate professor and in-charge of Centre for Social Audit at the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, told ThePrint that earlier this year, the institute had carried out training of ombudspersons to tell them about their responsibilities and how they could settle complaints and upload information on the Ombudsman mobile application launched by rural development minister Giriraj Singh last year..
The rural development ministry had said in its reply to ThePrint: States have been directed to take various measures to (make) aware Mahatma Gandhi NREGA beneficiaries regarding the functioning of ombudsperson, like ombudsperson name and mobile number on citizen information boards, presence of ombudsperson in social audit public hearing, wall painting in gram panchayats, social media, etc...
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