The Government’s National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) seems to be in shambles with states either not implementing them or not reporting what they are doing with the money. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government portrayed the NREG as the major poverty alleviation scheme that will lift millions out of poverty but bad enforcement, monitoring, and approval systems have robbed any promised benefit from the people. A frustrated Government admits that it has no idea how many people actually benefited from this program even within the last 2 months.

The economically backward Northeastern states and literacy enabled Kerala have made little headway in this scheme. While several millions have been released, there is no record of usage or reporting of what the monies are being used for. At best, the number of job cards issued in these states is negligent in proportion to their population. Officials blame the poor law and order situation in northeastern States for the delay in implementation.

It is only in West Bengal with a more development-focused Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya has there been any progress. WB has jobs for 4.9 million people.