Comments
The Supreme Court on Monday gave the Centre four weeks to take a decision on a CBI investigation into the alleged corruption, including misappropriation of funds, in the rural job guarantee scheme in Orissa. The court, however, warned that it would step in if the Centre fails to decide on the matter within the given time.
Earlier, the Government informed the court that it was mulling approaching the CBI to carry out the probe into the charges of misappropriation of funds in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Orissa. The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by an NGO, the Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS).
The court had on December 16, 2010 issued show-cause notice to the Centre and the Orissa Government, asking them as to why a CBI investigation should not be ordered into the functioning and implementation of MGNREGS in that state, the CEFS pointed out in an affidavit filed before the apex court.
The CEFS affidavit, filed in response to the Orissa Government’s affidavit, also notes the apex court’s observations that the allegations in regard to irregularities, diversion of funds, improper maintenance of records and non-implementation of schemes have been vaguely denied by the Government without providing any specific data based explanation.
MGNREGS is to provide to every household, whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work, not less than 100 days of wage employment every year. The Orissa Government said these allegations are incorrect and that it has been implementing the MGNREGS properly. It added that there was no misappropriation of funds in implementation of MGNREGS in Orissa.
In Orissa, majority of the poor households who are eligible and have volunteered to do manual work for 100 days have been denied the same, CEFS alleged.
The CEFS said its performance audit of the MGNREGS during September-October 2010 in Orissa showed that 67 per cent of the surveyed households did not get even a single day of MGNREGS employment in the previous one year.
It also cited the National Institute of Rural Development (under the Centre) Social Audit report of MGNREGS during 2006-07 and 2007-08 in the state to say that “More than 58 percent of the reported wage payments are bogus”.
In 2006-07 alone, “67 percent of the reported wage payments did not reach workers,” it alleged. Only 22 percent of the reported wages actually reached the workers, the CEFS said, adding that, in other words, 78 percent of the reported wage payments in the projects executed by line departments were siphoned off.
The CEFS, citing the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s audit on MNREGS in the state, said about 40 per cent of man-days mentioned in online job cards and muster rolls for 2006-07 to 2008-09 were fake, adding that instances of fraudulent muster rolls and misappropriation of funds were noticed. There were false muster rolls showing engagement of ghost workers, it said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.