VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Feb. 9: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has informed the Jharkhand High Court that the agency would probe another case of alleged scam in the MNREGA scheme in Chatra district besides alleged anomalies in transferring forest land to a private company for mining in Palamu district.
Coincidently, in both cases, Pooja Singhal was the Deputy Commissioner of the concerned district during the concerned period. However, in both cases, she is learned to have got a clean chit but the ED intends to look into these cases afresh.
“The investigation into the alleged irregularities in the matter of MNREGA in Chatra and Kathautia Coal Mines, Palamu, is also under progress,” the ED is said to have told the high court.
The ED made the above submission before the court in response to a Public Interest Litigation filed by one Arun Kumar Dubey in the Jharkhand High Court. The petitioner claimed that the probe agency did not investigate her role in the MNREGA scam in Khunti district.
Notably, the ED is also investigating her decisions as the Deputy Commissioner of Khunti district where a major scam in the MNREGA scam worth over Rs 18.06 crore had taken place.
The ED is understood to have asked concerned district administrations to make available relevant documents.
She was Deputy Commissioner of Chatra district from August 2007 till June 2008. There was an allegation that she gave Rs 6 crore as advance to two NGOs for the execution of work under MGNREGA.
The then CPI (ML) legislator Binod Singh had raised the issue during the assembly session in May 2012. The then deputy CM Sudesh Mahto had ordered a probe by the principal secretary of the rural development department.
It was alleged that she had issued an advance of Rs 4 crore and Rs 2 crore to Welfare Point and Prerna Niketan respectively. The grant was made for the cultivation of ‘musli’. The NGOs were given advance payment in 2008, but they did not complete the work and even beneficiaries were not given their wages.
Similarly, during her tenure in Palamu she was accused of transferring around 83 acres of the forest land to a private company for mining.
