As per government regulations, their wages were supposed to be deposited into the savings accounts opened at the local post office. But most of the villagers have not even been given their passbooks and some are reported to have been paid in cash. There have been reports that people who have not worked on the project have been given the money instead.
The villagers suspect that a major case of corruption is afoot involving the Block Development Office, The Postal Department and the officials of the MGNREGA.
An activist working for the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme was killed after being mercilessly beaten by a group of 12 Maoists at Jerua village in Latehar district.
The activist, Niyamat Ansari, who was stated to be a close aide of noted economist Jean Dreze, died last night after the Maoists beat him up with lathis, police sources said.
The rebels dragged him out of his residence at 7pm and started beating him up mercilessly. He was admitted to a local hospital where he died at 10pm, the sources said.
The Maoists also searched for another activist, Bhukhan Singh, in the village but could not find him.
Ansari was active in Gram Swaraj Abhiyan in Latehar's Maneka block and was convenor of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee ACT (MG-NREGA), the sources said.
The Maoists had on July 7, 2010 pasted posters warning Ansari and Singh not to 'exploit forest land or face consequences', the sources said.
Three years ago, another MG-NREGA activist, who worked with Dreze, had been killed by unidentified persons in neighbouring Palamau district which triggered widespread protests by several people, including Dreze.
NREGS is the flagship scheme of the government for the poor and aims at enhancing livelihood security of people in rural belts by guaranteeing 100 days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household.
The Jharkhand Police has arrested seven persons for reportedly siphoning off Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme funds. The FIR, filed on Tuesday at the Lapung Police Station, accuses assistant post master Binod Jaiswal, SBI's accountant Anil Kumar Sinha, and five officials of the Block Development Office — programme officer Samir Sagar, Rojgar Sevak Sanjay Oraon, Panchayat Sevak Mansa Kachhap, junior engineer Bindeshwar Singh and assistant engineer Rahul Kumar — of conspiring to corner the funds. The "beneficiaries" in the name of whom the funds were withdrawn either did not exist or did not receive any money.
The police stumbled upon the case after they arrested a wanted criminal, Bhola Sahu, on November 11 and recovered from him several "incriminating" documents, including 50 passbooks of SBI's Lapung branch, 150 passbooks of the Lapung post-office, 250 job cards of workers and a dozen registers/muster rolls.
"All of them were hand in glove. They conceived the NREGA schemes, prepared detailed project reports, maintained job cards and muster rolls and encashed the funds from the bank and post-office," said Ranchi SSP Praveen Singh.
Sahu told the police that Jaiswal, Sinha, Sagar, Oraon, Kachhap, Singh and Kumar were all involved in the scam. Two other accused, Apung BDO Moni Kumari and SBI's Lapung branch manger Ranu Kumar, are reported to be absconding.
Inspector B L Mishra, who is investigating the case, said the accused prepared more than 50 schemes envisaging either construction of roads or digging of ponds in villages falling under the Lapung block and withdrew funds under the MNREGA over one year.
"Although the exact amount of withdrawals has not been estimated so far, none of the MNREGA schemes is visible in Lapung," said Mishra.
Incidentally, this is the second case of an NREGA scam in the state involving post-masters routing money through post-offices and banks.
SOURCES :
- IBN-CNN
- Indian Express
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