CAG finds ₹646.92 crore MGNREGA wages unpaid for up to five years

Who it concerns: Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir; Jal Shakti Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department; Rural Development Department.

What the auditor found

• Jal Jeevan Mission: Only 44% of schemes (1,440 out of 3,253) were completed as of December 2024.
• Jal Jeevan Mission: No Operation and Maintenance (O&M) plans were prepared for completed assets, and no mechanism was instituted for trained village-level manpower.
• Jal Jeevan Mission: Water quality tests declared failed at block/district levels were not referred to higher laboratories for investigation.
• MGNREGA: ₹704.39 crore in dues remained outstanding as of March 2024, including ₹646.92 crore for material and skilled/semi-skilled wages.
• MGNREGA: 74% of works taken up for execution (14.82 lakh works) remained incomplete, with ₹1,897.10 crore incurred on these incomplete works.
• MGNREGA: 104 out of 144 Anganwadi Centres sampled remained incomplete after incurring ₹242.29 lakh in expenditure.
• MGNREGA: Wages were released without using Aadhaar Based Payment (ABP) methods in some instances.
• Recommendations: Ensure bottom-up planning for JJM, prioritize completion of incomplete schemes, and strengthen water quality monitoring and social audit mechanisms.

Also in the document

• CAG found that despite 77.15% of households having tap connections, there was no planned framework for maintenance or local capacity building, putting the sustainability of completed schemes at risk.
• CAG reported that in districts with low scheme completion rates (Kishtwar and Kulgam), the prevalence of waterborne diseases was high with an increasing trend over the last five years.
• CAG noted that 49% of the total expenditure on material and wages under MGNREGA (₹646.92 crore out of ₹1,333.25 crore) remained unpaid to suppliers and workers for periods ranging from one to five years.