Govt uses MGNREGA as political tool to benefit coalition party workers: Opposition

Minster for Rural Development Abdul Haq Khan came under fire from the opposition members in the Assembly on Thursday after he said that MLAs are taken on board while formulating the plan for works to be executed under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
The opposition MLAs accused government of using MGNREGA as a political tool to benefit the workers and members of the coalition parties.
Minister for Rural Development Abdul Haq Khan was replying to a question during the question hour raised by BJP leader and MLA Bani Jeewan Lal.
Minister while briefing the house on the norms for allotment of work under MGNREGA told the lawmakers from opposition that even though there isn’t any provision of consulting the MLAs on allotting the work under MGNREGA but still all the MLAs are being consulted after he directed the Block Development Officers (BDO) of his department to consult the concerned MLAs before granting any work under MGNREGA.
Reacting to the statement made by the Rural Development Minister Abdul Haq Khan, senior NC leader and MLA Kangan told the house that in absence of Panchayats in the State, all the works of MGNREGA are decided by the officials of the Rural Development Department in lieu with the people belonging to the ruling parties and the minister Rural Development himself knows that he has no control over the lower rung officials of his department.
Also reacting to the statement of the minster, NC leader and MLA Ganderbal Ishfaq Jabbar while lamenting the fact that even though the minister himself admits that as per norms of MGNREGA an MLA isn’t consulted before allotting any work he accused the minister of passing orders to his BDOs “of not assigning any work to the people belonging to the opposition parties”.
Ishfaq Jabbar while cornering the Rural Development Minister Abdul Haq Khan said, “The BDOs now inform us that they have got a phone call from the minister’s office and he has strictly ordered not to consult or assign any work to the members belonging to the opposition.
MLA Ganderbal was seconded by senior Congress leader and MLA Inderwal G M Saroori who accused the minister of misleading the house.
Saroori said that the Rural Development Ministry has completely ignored the Chenab valley and people from his constituency are calling him up every day and accusing the ministry of assigning the works under MGNREGA to the people belonging to coalition parties. While castigating the statement made by Rural Development Minister Abdul Haq Khan, Saroori said, “I was never consulted before any work was assigned in my constituency under MGNREGA.”
Earlier while criticizing the statement of Rural Development Minister, Congress MLA from Kargil Asgar Ali Karbalaie accused the government of being indifferent towards the woes of the people. He informed the house that amongst the total 13 blocks in the Ladakh region only 3 BDOs are managing the affairs for the Rural Development Department. Describing the non-availability of BDOs as the main reason behind the mismanagement of MGNREGA MLA Kargil Asgar Ali Karbalaie said, “Government has never asked any MLA to be part of the consultations for formulation of plan for assigning works under MGNREGA.”
Taking note of the points raised by the members of the opposition, Speaker Kavinder Gupta asked the government to consider the points raised in the House and said, “It is true that the BDO’s in many cases don’t consult the MLA and assign the work as per their wish.”