‘Funds for social auditing volunteers ready to be disbursed’

CHENNAI: State Secretary for Rural Development P Amudha on Friday said that the funds for settling the honorariums for volunteers involved in social auditing for the year 2019-20 is ready to be disbursed.

"Tamil Nadu did not have an independent social auditor as mandated by the Union government rules and there was a case pending at the court. Only now all the legal hurdles were removed and we have received the funds to settle for volunteers involved in social auditing", Amudha, told DT Next.

There are 566 volunteers involved in social auditing in village and block levels in Tamil Nadu apart from the volunteers at the Panchayat level who were appointed by the local panchayats. From 2014, volunteers were appointed to undertake social auditing of schemes sponsored by the Union government.

Volunteers at the district and block levels are appointed by the State government and the honorariums are fixed by the State government through government orders. Of late, there was a complaint that the State government had not paid them honorariums for 10 months. The honorariums vary from Rs 381 per day in Panchayats to Rs 5,000 per month at district level.

When Amudha was asked about the delay in distributing honorariums for volunteers even after the fund was allotted, she replied that though the funds have reached the department is in the process of verifying details of volunteers who worked in social auditing. She also said that in many cases the rules in appointing volunteers were not followed.

"According to the social auditing rules, a volunteer can work for a maximum of six months and if allowed to work for more he will develop contacts with the person involved in fraudulent activities and they both will join hands. The department is in the process of weeding out volunteers who have worked for more than six months but will settle the pending honorariums for whatever period they have volunteered in social auditing,” said Amudha.