In first, social audit of 4291 Panchayats being conducted in J&K: Official

Srinagar, Feb 14: For the first time, the Jammu and Kashmir Government is conducting social audit in all 4291 Panchayats to enhance local governance and transparency in local bodies.
Additional Secretary, Department of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Waseem Raja told Rising Kashmir that for the first time 100 percent social audit is being conducted in 4291 Panchayats in the current financial year in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We have completed the social audit of around 2500 panchayats and the remaining will be completed within the next two months,” he said.
Out of 4291 Panchayats, 2182 are in Kashmir and 2109 operate in Jammu region.
Waseem said earlier Social audit was conducted only in a few hundred Panchayats but this year it is being done in every single Panchayat of Union Territory,” he said.
“Social auditing creates an impact upon governance. It is taken up for the purpose of enhancing local governance, particularly for strengthening accountability and transparency in local bodies,” he said.
Waseem said the objective of a social audit is to assess the physical and financial gaps between needs and resources available for local development.
“Creating awareness among beneficiaries and providers of local social, productive services and increasing efficacy, the effectiveness of local development programs,” he added.
As per officials, social audit helps to narrow gaps between goals and reality, between efficiency and effectiveness. It is a technique to understand, measure, verify, report on and to improve the social performance of the organization.
Earlier this week, a meeting related to recovery under Social Audit under MGNREGA was held in Jammu. It was chaired by Commissioner Secretary to the Government, Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Mandeep Kaur.
During the meeting, it was observed that despite the lapse of considerable time, Social Audit recovery performance is minimal in respect of the majority of the districts across the J&K.
She directed has directed the Additional District Programme Coordinators, Assistant Commissioners of Development, and Block Development Officers to act promptly and make recoveries failing which deductions shall be made from their salaries.
The concerned BDOS’ were directed to recover the finally decided recoverable amount as reported by Social Audit Unit under MGNREGA on priority before 15th February and get the amount deposited in SNA (State Nodal Account) of State Employment Guarantee Fund.
It was also observed that, if any officer or BDO fails to do so, the same amount shall be recovered out of their salaries of this month besides making entry to such extent in their Service books.