Dharamveer Jha, director of MGNREGA underneath the Union Ministry of Rural Development, has written a letter to Jharkhand MNREGA commissioner Rajeshwari B looking for motion taken report, together with info on the FIR registered within the case and disciplinary motion in opposition to the officers.
Asking the state to submit the small print “without fail” by February 7, the Union ministry sought the state’s response in a manner that confirmed its “seriousness” in taking strict motion.
On January 14, The Indian Express reported on main irregularities discovered by the social audit unit of the Jharkhand Rural Development Department in its newest MGNREGA concurrent audit.
As per the findings, greater than 1.59 lakh employees have been listed within the data, however about 75 per cent of them have been lacking from the work locations. In addition, machines have been used to do work to create jobs for folks and the beneficiaries made offers with contractors to make use of their names on muster rolls in alternate for deductions from direct cash transfers. Contractors have been discovered to be utilizing contract employees as an alternative of native work-seekers.
In his letter, Jha wrote, “Please refer to an email from the Government of India with reference to the news article ‘Missing Workers, Dodgy Roles, Wage Diversion: NREG Audit in Jharkhand’ published in The Indian Express on 14 January 2022. Audits in various districts of the state.” In this regard, you will have been requested to make sure that motion is taken with full pressure by the Gram Panchayat in all such instances.
The letter directed motion inside three weeks: “… action against officers including GRS, BDO, Engineers/PRI functionaries, if any, involved in misconduct. FIR lodged in action, disciplinary proceedings initiated and terminated, recovery There should be information proposed and done. System for monitoring the action being taken on the findings of concurrent audit. Systemic changes/investigations introduced to prevent/minimize irregularities.”
In October final 12 months, out of 4,331 panchayats within the state, 1,118 have been concurrently audited in two phases. At 26,000 work websites audited, audit groups discovered solely 40,629 out of 1.59 lakh employees whose names have been on rolls submitted on-line.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
