M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Feb 7: An FIR has been lodged with the Tarhasi police station in Palamu regarding the irregularity in the execution of the schemes of MGNREGA.
The FIR was lodged by the BDO Tarhasi Sachidanand Mahto on February 5.
Speaking to lagatar24.com today, BDO Sachidanand Mahto said he has lodged the FIR against three named accused- Mirtunjay Singh (mukhiya), Niranjan Singh (panchayat sachiv) and Upender Singh (rozgar sewak) with the Tarhasi police station on February 5.
“We are trying to identify Mates and Junior Engineers as well against whom there would be the same criminal case,” he added.
Four schemes under MGNREGA were taken up in the financial year 2020-21, said Mahto, under the Sonepura panchayat.
Two of them were small ‘mitti-morrum’ roads. The remaining two schemes were for surface water management, according to BDO Tarhasi.
As all these four schemes were earthwork, it was to be done manually. But here, JCB machines were used which is in gross contravention of the rules of MGNREGA.
“MGNREGA act is very clear. Schemes of the MGNREGA are labour intensive and not machine-oriented. Hence, men and women are preferred to machines under all circumstances,” said BDO Sachidanand Mahto.
This contravention of the rules of the MGNREG Act was detected in the concurrent social audit of the schemes of the year 2020- 21which was done on 26.6.2020.
The BDO said the state rural development department recently sent an order to file criminal cases where such fraud and irregularity has been established in the MGNREGA schemes.
The Tarhasi police station has lodged this FIR under sections 406 and 420 of the IPC and section 25 of the MGNREG Act.
Assistant sub-inspector of police Sanjeev Kumar has been made its investigating officer.
The use of the JCB machine has thus deprived around 600 ‘Mandays’ of unskilled labourers, for whom the MGNREGA scheme is a boon.
There is more generation of employment of unskilled labourers in the earthen surface water management called Dobha in comparison to the earthen roads where material components like morrum account for 70 percent.
State convener of the NREGA Watch James Herunj said that the use of JCB machines in the scheme of MGNREGA is an act of criminality as it deprives an unskilled labourer of his wages to live on.
He said muscle-flexing people of the village or the panchayat indulge in such corrupt practices.
James Herunj said this malpractice is rampant all over Jharkhand. Poor monitoring and surveillance of the schemes by the seniors lead to such a fiasco in the MGNREGA scheme.
However, on the other hand, rozgar sevaks, panchayat sewaks, mukhiyas, etc have begun to cast doubt on the verity and factuality of the social audit of the MGNREGA schemes and cry foul that they are being made scapegoats.
