Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program, MGNREGA was earlier known as National Rural Employment Scheme, NREGA. It is an Indian Social Welfare Program that aimed at fulfilling the 'Right to Work' provisions made in the Constitution. MGNREGA was launched in 2006 under Rural Employment Sector by the Ministry of Rural Development. Main objective of the program is to give legal guarantee of wage employment to the adult members of rural households who are willing to do unskilled manual labour work subject to a maximum of 100 days per year for every household. Every rural household has the right to register under the scheme, job card is issued to the registered, Job Card holder can seek employment; State Government shall pay 25% of minimum wage for the first 30 days as compensatory daily unemployment allowance to the families and of wage for remaining period of the year. MGNREGA work was undertaken by various Gram Panchayats. You have been appointed as an Administrator Incharge of the District. You have been given the responsibility of monitoring MGNREGA work undertaken by various Gram Panchayats. You are also given the authority to give technical sanctions to all MGNREGA works. In one of the Panchayats in your jurisdiction, you notice that your predecessor has mismanaged the Program in terms of : (i) Money not disbursed to actual job-seekers. (ii) Muster Rolls of the Labourers not properly maintained. (iii) Mismatch between the work done and payments made. (iv) Payments made to fictitious persons. (v) Job Cards were given without looking into the need of person. (vi) Mismanagement of funds and to the extent of siphoning of funds. (vii) Approved works that never existed. (a) What is your reaction to the above situation and how do you restore the proper functioning of MGNREGA Program in this regard ? (b) What actions would you initiate to solve the various issues listed above ? (c) How would you deal with the above situation ?

Key learnings from their answer

• ›His closing lines were matched to the specific question, not generic: the Sanskrit shloka 'Yatra Naryastu Pujyate Ramante Tatra Devta' to close the temple-excluding-women case study (Q8/CS2), and 'Sunlight is the best disinfectant' to close the MGNREGA whistleblowing case (CS6) -> end every answer with a quote or maxim that is topically wired to that exact dilemma, so the conclusion reinforces the argument rather than ornamenting it.
• ›Across all six case studies he ran a single rigorous scaffold: issues -> options -> a merit/demerit table -> chosen action -> justification, repeatedly landing on a consultative 'middle path' (stakeholder committee, internal escalation before going public) -> a fixed, table-driven case-study template lets you show you weighed alternatives instead of jumping to a verdict, and the examiner can see the reasoning at a glance.