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Parliamentary Secy, corrupt officials misusing NREGS money: Cong |
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DIMAPUR, NOV 30 (EMN): Accusing Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development of indulging in gross corruption and irregularities in NREGS programme in Nagaland, the state Congress Party has demanded immediate dropping of the Parliamentary Secretary
or resignation of the minister in charge of RD on moral ground.
Alleging that the huge funds allotted under NREGS have become the property of VIPs, particularly the Parliamentary Secretary for RD, the NPCC in a release issued by its NREGS Cell chairman Sulanthung Lotha pointed out that the Parliamentary Secretary, who is in the government saddle for just one year and eight months, has become a ‘wealthy NREGS tycoon/launderer’ and purchased buildings in Dimapur and Kohima and huge chunk of lands in Dimapur worth crores of rupees.
The Congress Party alleged that he has become rich overnight and developed a habit of doling out huge amount of money like fleecing cards while seeking to know under what scheme or fund he had donated Rs 40 lakh to the villagers in a function at Viswema village.
Referring to the Parliamentary Secretary’s reply to a question by media persons on alleged corruption and flouting of NREGA operational guidelines that the RD department and its agencies were not wholly aware of the guidelines, the Congress party described it as ‘amazing’ and said the so’-called unawareness of NREGA guidelines has different meaning for the DAN Government’.
The party also accused ‘big shots’, R D department officials including DRDA project directors, BDOs and even some village authorities like VDB secretaries etc of embezzling hundreds of crores of rupees of NREGS money by turning themselves into pseudo job card holders and creating lakhs of bogus and fictitious job cards.
The Congress Party, which is regularly keeping track of what the DAN government authorities and their accomplices are doing with NREGS programmes and funds as watchdog of the Naga people, on physical verification found that many villagers received only ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 1000 a year out of Rs 10,000 meant for one villager. And in many cases, the villagers have not received even one rupee, it said. The party informed that as per Union RD Ministry’s record, around Rs 700 crore has been allocated to Nagaland under NREGS programme.
It also alleged that instead of delivering the programmes and funds meant for the villagers, the DAN government and its agencies have devices a method and trained the village leaders, particularly many VDB secretaries/members and associates, to hoard the job card holders’ funds and shared the looted booty with RD officials and politicians.
Accusing the RD department of thoroughly violating and misusing the NREGA guidelines prescribed as an Act by the Parliament, the Congress party cited some of the gross anomalies it detected in the process of its investigation such as no job cards were distributed to the villagers (NREGA rules open violation), random job card entries and without prior consent of the people concerned, double/triple entries of job cards, countless bogus job cards, forged muster rolls, forged social audit record, non-maintenance of work registers or forged work registers, conversion of NREGS funds to contract works, random issuance of NREGS work orders by project directors and BDOs to individuals and groups, gross misuse of NREGS funds under material component heads, work orders issued to individuals through VIPs, parliamentary secretaries and ministers note pads, issuance of NREGS works to NPF party workers by BDOs etc.
Stating that Rs 100 lakh each was given to all the MLAs during 2008-2009 and Rs 40 lakh each to all MLAs in 2009-2010, the party alleged that under these converted funds of NREGS, some VIPs have taken cash directly from the funds allotted to the villages through programme officers, BDOs without executing the works.
It also alleged utilization of machineries like bull dozers/JCBs against NREGS rules in many villages with tacit understanding and support from BDOs, PDs and RD department officials, openly depriving the village job card holders of their wages.
Clarifying that it is not opposing for the sake of opposition, the Congress party stated that it is opposing the ‘corrupt DAN Government’ who ‘nakedly deprived’ the villagers of NREGS benefits.
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