Government employees and people who died years ago are holders of job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Meghalaya, a whistleblower’s complaint has revealed.
Nazmul Hashan, a resident of Askikandi village in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills district, wrote on April 28 to Demdema Block Development Officer P.R. Sangma on “widespread misappropriation” of government funds.
Mr. Sangma, also the Programme Officer for the MGNREG Scheme in the Demdema Community and Rural Development Block, registered an FIR against against Askikandi Village Employment Council (VEC) secretary Mozidur Rahman on May 13.
The FIR at the Phulbari police station followed a May 6 hearing on several complaints against him. The hearing revealed that 43 service holders in the Askikandi area working in various government departments had job cards, with a few possessing multiple cards.
One of the names that cropped up at the hearing was that of government school teacher Sahanur Islam who possessed three job cards.
If that were not enough, Mr. Rahman was allegedly found to be illegally withdrawing money through job cards issued in the name of 17 dead people.
In the FIR, Mr. Sangma said that the VEC secretary did not inform the block office about the deceased job card-holders or the government employees and went about preparing the muster roll for misusing the government funds.
Under the MGNREGA, each job card-holder is entitled to 100 days of work in a year. The daily wage of a job card-holder was raised from ₹ 187 a day in 2019 to ₹ 203 this year.
“We are working on the actual amount misappropriated and to be refunded. It will take another two-three days,” Mr. Sangma told The Hindu from Demdema on Thursday.
He added that the police have been asked to take stern action against Mr Rahman under relevant sections of the law.
There have been corruption charges against many VECs in the western half of Meghalaya comprising the Garo Hills.
