Parliament Question: Implementation of MGNREGA in Jammu & Kashmir

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3976 TO BE ANSWERED ON 27/03/2026 IMPLEMENTATION OF MGNREGA IN JAMMU & KASHMIR 3976 Shri Gulam Ali: Will the Minister of Rural Development be pleased to state: (a) the block-wise details of works undertaken under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Jammu & Kashmir during the last five years; (b) the title and category of works approved, ongoing and completed in each block; (c) the total number of works, person-days generated and expenditure incurred, year-wise and block-wise; (d) the details of pending liabilities and delayed wage payments, if any; and (e) steps taken to strengthen transparency, fund flow and implementation? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SHRI KAMLESH PASWAN) (a) to (c): Block-wise details of works completed and ongoing including the expenditure made on the works in Jammu & Kashmir under MGNREGS can be accessed via report number R6.1.1 NREGASoft at the following link, which is available in public domain: https://nreganarep.nic.in/netnrega/Work_Status_Frame.aspx?page=s&lflag=eng&state_na me=JAMMU%20AND%20KASHMIR&state_code=14&fin_year=2025- 2026&source=national&Digest=MQcwaHn9mjIvIIQ41Un9JA Block-wise details of persondays generated in Jammu & Kashmir can be accessed via report number R6.1.1 NREGASoft at the following link, which is available in public domain: https://nreganarep.nic.in/netnrega/citizen_html/demregister.aspx?page=S&lflag=eng&stat e_name=JAMMU%20AND%20KASHMIR&state_code=14&fin_year=2025- 2026&source=national&Digest=6A6y8z2uH/SpvuO/IcjX8g (d): Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mahatma Gandhi NREGS) is a demand-driven wage employment scheme and fund release to States/UTs, including Jammu & Kashmir is a continuous process. Under the Scheme, the Wage payments are directly credited by the Central Government to the accounts of the beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer protocol. Sanctions for Wage payments are issued daily by the Ministry through the Public Finance Management System (PFMS) based on fund transfer orders received from the States/ UTs after following due procedures. At the beginning of each financial year, Page 1 of 4admissible pending liabilities of the previous years, if any, are duly reimbursed by the Government of India. Accordingly, all due and admissible pending wage liabilities upto FY 2024-25 have already been cleared. With regard to Material and Admin components, States/UTs including Jammu & Kashmir are required to furnish fund release proposals to the Government of India. The Central Government releases funds periodically in two tranches with each tranche consisting of one or more installments, keeping in view the “agreed to” Labour Budget, demand for works, opening balance, pace of utilization of funds, pending liabilities, overall performance and subject to submission of relevant documents by the States/UTs including Jammu & Kashmir. Under the Scheme, in the current financial year 2025-26 (as on 22.03.2026), an amount of Rs. 1447.22 crore has been released to Jammu & Kashmir, which included Rs. 1272.65 crore for Wage component and an amount of Rs.174.57 crore for Material and Admin Components. As Sanction for payment of Wages are issued by Ministry on a daily basis through PFMS (Public Finance Management System), after receipt of funds transfer orders from States/UTs after following the due procedures, the fund release status keeps updating on a daily basis. As on 20.03.2026, the pending liabilities under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS for Jammu & Kashmir stand at Rs. 218.16 crore towards the Wage component and Rs. 249.76 crore towards the Material component (As per NREGASoft). There is no pending liability for Admin Component. Central government is committed to release admissible pending liabilities to the States/UTs as per established procedure. (e): The Scheme is implemented on an end-to-end integrated transaction-based MIS platform called NREGASoft through which all aspects relating to planning, administrative and technical approval of the scheme, issue of job cards, acceptance of demand, issue of muster roll, measurement, approval of payment and finally payment to the beneficiary through a DBT-PFMS platform are monitored. Transparency and accountability are the prime focus of the scheme. Ministry of Rural Development has adopted robust mechanisms for ensuring the transparency and accountability in implementation of the scheme across the States/UTs. Brief note of the various monitoring and evaluation arrangements made to strengthen transparency and accountability under the Scheme are given at Annexure. With regard to fund flow and implementation it is stated that the following measures have been undertaken to ensure the regular transfer of funds to States including Jammu & Kashmir and the timely release of funds to implementing agencies: 1. Public Financial Management System (PFMS): The government is using the PFMS platform to monitor and ensure the efficient and timely transfer of funds to the States & UTs. This system helps in real time tracking of the fund flow and its utilization. 2. Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT): Wages under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS are paid directly into the Aadhaar linked bank accounts of beneficiaries through Aadhaar Based Payment System (ABPS), following the DBT protocol. This minimizes delays and ensures timely payments. 3. In order to ensure timely wage payments, the Government of India has issued a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to all States/UTs, which defines Page 2 of 4fixed timelines for each stage of the wage payment process-from muster roll uploading to FTO approval. 4. Capacity building of the field functionaries: Workshops and training programmes are conducted by the Ministry for the field functionaries to enhance their skills and support them in handling the financial systems. 5. Regular Reviews: Continuous monitoring through review meetings with different stakeholders such as banks, States/UTs, PFMS, NIC-DRD is done by the Ministry. ***** Page 3 of 4Annexure Annexure referred in reply to part (e) of Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3976 dated 27.03.2026. i. National Mobile Monitoring Service (NMMS): It enables capturing of attendance of workers at Mahatma Gandhi NREGA worksites (except for individual beneficiary works) along with geo-tagged photograph twice in a day. This app aids in increasing citizen oversight of the programme. This is one more step towards transparency and accountability. ii. Area Officer Monitoring Visit Application: This App facilitates the officials of the State/UT to record their field visit findings online. The App also allows the officials to record time stamped and geotagged photograph for all the schemes launched by Department of Rural Development. Also, this App helps in developing hassle-free reporting of the field visits. This app records the field visit findings and views the field visit outcome report by the senior officials. iii. GIS based plan– Use of Space Technology: GIS based GP level plan (ridge to valley approach) preparation using Remote Sensing technology in a saturation mode for all the GPs of the country. iv. Yuktdhara : GIS based planning tool – To simplify the GIS based planning at GP level under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA “ Yuktdhara” a Geospatial planning portal is developed in collaboration with ISRO-NRSC. v. SECURE – Software for Estimate Calculation for using Rural Rates for Employment :- Application is being used to estimate the cost of works to be undertaken under the scheme. vi. GeoNREGA: the app has been developed by using Space Technology to track the creation of assets by geotagging it, at “Before”, “During” and “After” stages of the asset creation. vii. JALDOOT App: JALDOOT app has been developed to enable monitoring of ground water tables across the country. The Jaldoot app enables Gram Rojgar Sahayak (GRS) to measure the water level of selected wells twice a year (pre-monsoonand post-monsoon). viii. JANMANREGA app: this app helps in proactive disclosure of information to its citizens in reference to the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGS. Citizen awareness is a key to efficient, effective, and transparent execution of the scheme. ix. Ombudsperson App- An Ombudsperson App has been developed for smooth reporting and categorization of grievances received from various sources viz. physical, digital and mass media related to the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, easy tracking and timely passing of awards on each case as per the guidelines and easy uploading of quarterly and annual report on the website. x. Social Audit: As per the mandate of the Act, the Ministry has laid emphasis on the setting up of an institutional structure at the States/UTs level for facilitating social audits of all the Gram Panchayats at least twice a year. With the consistent efforts by Ministry, a total of 27 States and 1 UT have established Independent Social Audit Units. Further, monitoring by National level monitors regular and special monitoring, monitoring by team of central level officers, monitoring visits by Common review Mission teams, monitoring through use of Area Officers app is being conducted for better implementation of the programme. State/UT specific reviews are also undertaken from time to time. ***** Page 4 of 4