NUAPADA MGNREGS GOOF-UP: REPEATED COMPLAINTS IGNORED

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Sunday, 04 March 2018 |  | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar

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People of Bargaon village in Sinapali block of Nuapada district voiced their concerns over irregularities and corruptions in MGNREGS works in their village.
They complained that about Rs10 lakh has been misappropriated by corrupt officials through manipulation of muster rolls (MR). “We have drawn attention of the block and district administrations on this issue but no action has been taken,” they said.
The corruption issue raised by the villagers is related to the MGNREGS projects in Bargaon village undertaken in two locations. One is the renovation of a pond and the other is improvement of the road from Botopali to Nariabaheli village. Basing on the information downloaded from the Government website, the people complained that the officials have misappropriated the fund by making fake entries in the muster rolls.
"The website shows that the works have been undertaken in two phases, the first phase in 2013-14 followed by phase II works in 2015-16; but, practically no phase II work was taken," the villagers said. By analyzing the MRs, the villagers found that, people who are dead much before the initiation of the projects and children reading in schools have also worked. As per example given by the villagers, Sambaru Satnami of the village died 14 years ago, but he is a wage recipient according to the MRs. Likewise, it is alleged that ghosts of Amru Satnami, Durya Harijan, Metni Harijan and Pustam Nial etc have received wages.
The number of children/students, who have received wages according to the MRs is also many like, Naresh Nial of class VI, Puja Harijan and Lata Nial of class VIII, Sana Harihjan of class X, Tulsi Nial of class XI and Madhuri Nial of class VII etc. As many as 28 such fake payments are found in the MRs.
One more interesting thing is that, some workers have received wages for 28 days after working for only 14 days. For example, Naresh Satnami of the village has received wage for 28 days after working for 14 days in two phases. Names of 12 such persons appear in the MRs.
“A complaint has been made under grievance redressal rules of MGNREGA with the Block Programme Officer (BPO) cum BDO, Sinapali, District Programme Coordinator (DPC) cum Collector, Nuapada and even the Commissioner of Panchayati Raj Department of Odisha and the Secretary of Rural Development, Government of India, but no action has been initiated,” rued Bipin Sunari, an activist of Bargaon village. Both the Government at the Centre and the State are two sides of the same coin; their silence in corruption issue encourages the corrupt officials to wallow in corruption,” added he.
The villagers have been demanding investigation of the matters since long. Their demand for information under RTI Act has also been denied.

"The information of MGNREG works should be provided within seven days as per the MGNREG Act, but the officials are silent even after five months of our demand for information. The State Information Commission has also not heard our case. Lapse of time erases all proofs at field level; now it is impossible to verify the work in the field as the road has already been repaired by the department of RD under PMGSY," Sunari further said.

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