Nayagarh/Odagaon: Implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), a Centre-sponsored poverty alleviation programme, has been mired in controversies in Nayagarh district with workdays having been given away to people from affluent background and dead persons.
A recent survey at Kural village under Odagaon block found many flaws in the implementation of the poverty alleviation scheme. Irregularities have been carried out in the names of various persons and the money has been siphoned off.
It was found that the number of registered households reported to the state government has been inflated and bogus persons were issued job cards. As a result, the rich got richer while the poor remained poor due to shoddy implementation of the scheme.
Family members of a contractor were shown having done soil work. Likewise, a disabled person has worked for four years under the scheme.
Similarly, a person serving life imprisonment in jail was found to have sought work under the rural job scheme while a woman who was killed by his son is a job card holder.
People have demanded an impartial probe into the irregularities and stringent action against the accused. Rankanidhi Behera is serving life imprisonment since 2008 for killing his mother on a Mother’s Day.
However, he has a job card and his name is mentioned in the muster roll. A verification of the muster roll revealed that Rankanidhi had applied for 12 days work from May 21, 2018 to June 3, 2018 in the renovation of a crematorium pond in Kural village.
Similarly, his deceased mother Hiramani Bewa was shown as a job card holder. There is no end to the irregularities as there are two job cards in the name of two women family members of Rankanidhi.
These two women are Meena Behera and Mina Behera. However, the wage payment has been made in the name of Meena Behera. A person with 60 per cent disability has been mentioned as a job card holder.
He has worked in the renovation of a playground of Daddhibamanjew Sanskrit School from 2017 to 2018. The records even show that he has been engaged in the road work in Bengei Sahi village from May, 2018 to June, 2018 and till January, 21 next year.
His wages have been credited to his bank account. However, a close scrutiny revealed that no such person had worked under the scheme nor wages paid in his bank account. A contractor and his family members were also found to be job card holders.
The record shows they have worked for the renovation of a high school playground and the government hospital in the village. The wages have been paid in their bank accounts.
The concerned contractor is also the proprietor of a medicine store and is a regular taxpayer to the government.
PNN