MADURAI: A division bench at the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench), on Monday, dismissed a public interest writ petition which prayed for restriction on the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) during the agriculture harvest season. A bench, consisting of Justices R Banumathi and B Rajendran, dismissed the petition stating that the court cannot intervene in the policy matter of the Centre. K Periyasamy, a 76-year-old native of Dindigul, had stated in his petition that there was a shortage of farm workers at the time of harvest, since most of the villagers prefer to work under the MNREGS. Contending that agricultural activities were ‘paralysed’ on a few occasions in the past, the petitioner said no proper steps have been taken by the Union Ministry of Rural Development to implement the scheme without affecting the agriculture sector.Periyasamy also levelled several charges against the ground level officers over misuse of funds sanctioned by the Union government for the scheme. “No proper work is assigned to persons engaged under the scheme, but the list of employees is manipulated by ground level officers, who also swindle funds for personal gains”, Periyasamy alleged. Due to lack of proper mechanism the workers sometimes without doing any work collected the wages, he added. However, when the case came before the bench it dismissed the petition stating that they cannot intervene in the policy matter of the Centre.“The implementation of the scheme is a policy of the Centre. It is implemented as per the guidelines laid down by the Rural Development Ministry, and the guideline in itself contains safeguard and safety measures”, the judges noted. If there were any specific grievances regarding irregularities of the scheme or misuse of funds it was for the petitioner to take it to the notice of appropriate authorities who would consider the issue, they concluded.
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