“Designed to Falter: MGNREGA Implementation in Maharashtra” by N C Narayanan and Nitin Lokhande (EPW, 29 June 2013) attempted to take a close look at the delivery mechanism of the Government of Maharashtra’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) programme. The observation that there is a deficit in technical capacity is indisputable, and is supported by the field-level experiences of many organisations such as ours.

However, I would like to voice my concern over some points made in the paper.