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.
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. 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.
Despite this, the state introduced the scheme with the objective of supporting vulnerable rural households. 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.
