ACD Budgam proposes termination of 35 MGNREGA supporting staff

SRINAGAR — Assistant Commissioner Development, Budgam (Project Officer Wage Employment) has proposed the termination of 35 MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) supporting staff in Budgam district’s B.K.Pora and Surasyar blocks.

Officials told Srinagar-based news gathering agency KDC that the proposal comes after a review by the Administrative Secretary for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (RD&PR) which revealed poor performance in terms of person-days generated under the scheme.

“The review specifically identified B.K.Pora and Surasyar blocks as having the highest number of Gram Panchayats (GPs) where no person-days were generated under MGNREGA. This indicates a lack of contribution from the supporting staff at the GP level in these blocks,” they said.

“Based on the review findings, the ACD Budgam has proposed the immediate termination of 35 MGNREGA supporting staff members. These staff members belong to various Gram Panchayats within B.K.Pora and Surasyar blocks,” they further said.

“Recently Administrative Secretary, RD&PR has taken a detailed review of MGNREGA performance indicators and expressed displeasure over the poor performance of person-days generation under the scheme during its proceedings. In this backdrop, the undersigned withheld the salary of BDO’s, AEE’s and AE’s vide this office letter No. ACD/BUD/EsttU2502-05; Dated: 15/07/2024,” reads a communique of ACD Budgam addressed to Deputy Commissioner Budgam and Director Rural Development Kashmir, Srinagar.

“Accordingly, it has been observed that Block B.K.Pora and Surasyar, having the highest number of GPs, where not even a single PD has been generated so far, which reveals that below mentioned GP Level Supporting Staff is not further required by the Department. It is as such recommended to terminate the below-mentioned supporting staff immediately,” the communique further reads.

Moreover, the communique does not specify the reasons behind the low person-days generation in the identified blocks. However, it highlights a potential lack of effort or inefficiency on the part of the supporting staff.