Press Release about OREGS Survey
Participatory Loot in Orissa’s Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme


New Delhi - based Centre for Environment and Food Security(CEFS) has just completed a rapid survey to evaluate and assess the performance of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the state of Orissa. The rapid survey was conducted in 100 villages spread over six districts of KBK(Kalahandi-Koraput-Balangir) region of Orissa. The Survey conducted during May-June 2007 covered six districts , namely; Balangir,Nuapada,Kalahandi,Koraput,Nabarangpur and Rayagada districts.


The preliminary findings of this rapid survey are shocking, scandalous and outrageous. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which is projected as the biggest anti-poverty programme in the history of Independent India , has been hijacked by officials responsible for implementing this scheme. Our survey findings have revealed that there is participatory loot, plunder and pillage in Orissa’s Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme(OREGS). There is open loot of taxpayers’ money ,there is plunder of poor’s right to guaranteed employment and there is pillage of every single norm of democratic governance and administrative accountability .


It is shocking to note that we could not find a single case where entries in the job cards are correct and match with the actual number of workdays physically verified with the villagers. Most of the job cards are kept in the homes of VLWs against the will of the job card holders, in many cases job cards are with VLWs for over 8-12 months. We found many villages where even after the completion of the OREGS work and payment of the work made long ago, there is no entry in the job cards whatsoever. We found many villages where OREGS work is going on without any villager having received Job Card. Most of the villages where employment has been given, only half or one third of the wage payment was made and that too after 4-6 months of the work being done.There are many villages where actual wage has been given at the rate of Rs 40/ , Rs 30 or even Rs 22/per day . We also found some villages where no wage payment has been made even after 6-8 months of the work.


On the basis of our rapid survey in these 100 villages of Orissa, we would like to make following observations:


Out of 100 sample villages covered for this survey, 18 villages have not received any job card , 37 villages have not received any job under OREGS even after 16 months of launch of the scheme, 11 villages have received neither job cards nor any job, Job cards of 21 villages are lying with VLWs and Job cards of 2 villages are lying with JEs , in 25 villages only half, one third or partial payments have been made .In 13 villages, we found scandalous difference in the number of workdays recorded in the job cards and the number of actual workdays physically verified with the workers/labourers in these villages. There are 3 villages where no payments have been made even after 4-8 months of the work done. We found 6 villages in Kashipur block of Rayagada district where OREGS work is being done without any job cards being issued to the villagers.

Major findings of the Survey


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Number of Villages where job card entries are proper and correct : ZERO
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Number of villages where 100 days employment has been given: ZERO
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Number of villages where Social Audit has been conducted : ZERO
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Number of villages where workers/labourers/villagers have checked up their muster rolls : ZERO
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No job and No Card-11 villages
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No work- 37 villages
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Cards lying with VLW- 21 villages, and with JEs-2 villages
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Half and partial payment: 25 villages
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Huge difference in the job days entry in the cards and actual verification with the workers/labourers- 13 villages
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Work without cards- 6 villages( all in Kashipur block, Rayagada district)
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No payment at all – 3 villages


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The preliminary analysis of our field survey has revealed that more than 80-90% of the money spent in Orissa Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme(OREGS) has been directly pocketed by officials responsible for executing this scheme.Only leakages and crumbs have reached the rural poor of Orissa. This scheme has become less of Employment Guarantee Scheme for the hungry and poor villagers and more of a money spinning machine and Income Guarantee Scheme for Orissa’s officials . If Orissa Government conducts Social Audit as per the rules and norms laid down in the NREGS in all the Panchayats where this scheme has been implemented, more than 95% of the officials and bureaucrats involved in the implementation of this Scheme will loose their jobs and will go behind the bars immediately.




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The NREGS promised 100 days guaranteed employment to every needy family of rural India. We did not find a single case of a family having been given 100 day’s employment in any of the 100 villages of KBK region . The actual rural jobs and wages provided on the ground are less than 2 percent of the promised jobs and wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme(NREGS).
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The Current level of hunger, poverty and deprivation in Orissa’s KBK areas is as deep, demeaning and dehumanising as ever despite the so- called successful implementation of NREGS with the highest allocation of funds anywhere in the country.
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Rural Employment Scheme has made virtually Zero impact on the livelihood security of Orissa’s rural poor.There is no let up in the level of distress migration of Adivasis and Dalits from Orissa’s KBK reason in search of livelihood in other parts of the country. There is no tangible positive impact of this scheme on the level of distress migration from Orissa.
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Social Audit looks like a fraud on the rural poor of Orissa . There has been no Social Audit whatsoever in any of the 100 villages visited by us. Out of hundred villages, only one village had dared ask to sign only on filled up muster rolls and refused to sign on the blank muster rolls. Villagers had three rounds of fight with VLW to seek this right. In none of the villages we surveyed, any senior official has ever done any inspection of the OREGS work in these villages.
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There is ZERO accountability and total absence of transparency in the administration of OREGS.
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Lockout on Orissa’s Grassroots Democracy: Out of 100 villages visited, we could not find a single Panchayat office open.There was lockout on all the Panchayat Bhawan’s we did visit. The villagers told us that these offices open only once or twice in a month . In most of the Panchayats people do not know as to who is keeping the keys of Panchayat Bhavan.
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The way Orissa Government is implementing OREGS, this scheme seems to be a cruel joke on hungry and poor Adivasis and Dalits.It is an affront to the basic dignity that poor citizens of the largest democracy of the world deserve.
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Brazenness and callousness of Orissa’s officials involved in the implementation of this scheme is outrageous and unparallel anywhere in India.
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Subvertion of Grassroots Democracy:It is distressing to note that in the implementation of Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, we found complete subvertion of the grassroots democracy. Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) have been completely sidelined and marginalised in the implementation of OREGS. Sarpanches are asked by VLWs to sign on blank cheques and VLWs decide everything. In most of the Panchayats, VLWs do not share a single information about the OREGS work in the Panchayat with any of the elected representatives of Gram Panchayat. It is a mockery of grassroots democracy. Muster Rolls are invariably kept either in the homes of VLWS or JEs. In 21 sample villages , job cards have been kept in the homes of VLWs against the will of card holders. Most of the VLWs are inaccessible to villagers because they stay in towns located 50-60 kms away from Panchayats. They come once or twice a month in the Panchayat office. A poor Adivasi has to walk on foot and cover this long distance just to meet VLW. Even after walking this long distance, poor Adivasi is not sure whether he would be able to meet VLW.
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Muster Rolls are more secret a document in Orissa than the Nuclear secrets of the country. We could not meet a single person in these 100 villages who has ever seen muster rolls of the OREGS work in his village. Muster Rolls are always kept in the house of VLWs and villagers who work in OREGS projects are made to sign on blank muster rolls.
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Indian citizens and NGOs do need BDO’s permission to see muster rolls and they do need District Collector’s permission to go to Block office or meet BDO. BDO of Nandpur Block (Koraput district) has instructed all the VLWs of the block not to show muster rolls to anyone(especially NGOs) without his permission. VLW of Raisingh Gram Panchayat (Nandpur block-Koraput) Shri Nagesh Choudhary gave us in writing that he needs BDO’s permission to show muster rolls to anybody. When we approached BDO of Nandpur the next day, he bluntly refused to show any muster rolls to us unless we do get permission for the same from District Collector or some higher authority of Govt of India. When we contacted secretary, Panchayati Raj, Orissa Govt and requested his intervention in the matter, he told us that he would immediately ask the concerned BDO to show muster rolls to us. To our utter shock and disbelief, within half hour we received a call from Personal Secretary of Panchayati Raj Secretary asking us whether we do have permission of the District Collector or any higher authority for meeting the concerned BDO. When we asked as to why do we need District Collector’s permission, he told us as how dare we go to BDO’s office without District Collector’s permission. He asked us in stern voice to return back from the Block office and not to visit any village in the Block. We also got three telephone calls from APD(DRDA-Koraput) asking us not to visit any village of Nandpur block. He instead offered to show us some villages in some other block. We had also sought intervention from the offices of District Collector(Koraput), Chief Secretary and Chief Minister of Orissa. Despite all these efforts , we did not succeed in seeing the muster rolls. This whole experience in Nandapur block was highly demeaning and disgusting and we wonder whether there is a big scam that was sought to be covered up. If this could happen to a research team coming from Delhi, one shudders to imagine what could happen to a poor and illiterate Adivasi or Dalit of Orissa.The sense of fear of bureaucracy among Orissa’s Adivasis and Dalits is not only frightening and sickening but also reminiscient of the British Raj era’s reign of terror unleashed by Imperial Bureaucracy.
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Sub-Sahara within India:

Widespread hunger, abject poverty and dehumanising deprivation in KBK villages is worse than Sub-Saharan Africa. On Human Development Index,Ruwanda and Ethiopia would fare better than most of KBK villages.

Hunger and abject poverty is wide spread in all the 100 villages of KBK region we visited.Our interactions and interviews with villagers suggest that about 99% of the Adivasis and Dalits living in KBK villages are suffering from chronic hunger and malnutrition. Large number of children in these villages are suffering from severe malnutrition. Hunger and abject poverty is so apparent and writ large on the hollowed cheeks, sunken eyes, distended bellies of children, skeleton figures, listlessness and despair in their looks.


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Starvation victim families of Kashipur(Rayagada) are still waiting for the Rural Employment Scheme to arrive in their villages and they are drying and collecting Mango Kernels to avoid starvation in the coming rainy season as they do every year. Panasguda and Gottiguda villages of Kashipur Panchayat (Kashipur block, Rayagada district) where many starvation deaths took place in 2001 , where Chief Minister flew down by helicopter and troops of media kept descending for months after the tragedy, hungry and poor Adivasis of these villages have been forgotten by every one-Nation, State Government, Media, NGOs and even Rural Employment Scheme has bypassed these villages despite facing soul- killing poverty and crippling hunger. These villages have not received even job cards.


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Contempt of Parliament: Orissa’s Officials and agencies executing National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(NREGA) passed by Indian Parliament are guilty of contempt of Parliament. Every single rule and norm governing this scheme is being observed only in violation in the state of Orissa.The Orissa government will have to take full responsibility for the contempt of Indian Parliament.
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In the light of above observations and findings about the functioning of OREGS, the Centre for Environment and Food Security(CEFS) is going to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court of India seeking immediate intervention of the apex court of the land to stop open loot of taxpayers’ money, to check the plunder of Orissa’s poors’ right to employment and to halt the pillage of basic norms of administrative accountability and democratic governance.