Before Court's orders of CBI inquiry into the MGNREGA scam, Economic Offences Wing (EOW) was investigating the matter. EOW's then ADG AL Banerjee had submitted his inquiry report of Mirzapur district in the High Court, but the court didn't find it sufficient and ordered a CBI probe. Along with this, the court also ordered the investigating agency to probe the matter on the same points in every district. At the end, the court questioned EOW's report which only blames low ranked officers, while the high ranked officers have been left out of the scam.
As the probe has been handed over to the CBI, it is also being said that very soon the investigation will reach out to then Rural Development Minister Daddu Prasad and Agriculture Education and Agriculture Research Minister Rajpal Tyagi. The probe can also tough former Chief Minister Mayawati. The probe will also affect DMs, COs of several districts and some of the high ranked officers of MGNREGA.
It is surely going to give you a shock that every year the government programs like MGNREGA gets crores of rupees as aide but even after the involvement of such big money, the government is not having any records of the expenses. Even it is not taking any tough steps to eradicate corruption and irregularities in this scheme. Under MGNREGA, the government is currently running several development programs like roads, flood control, water harvesting, cleaning and developing of small or big canals, irrigation facilities and dozens of more plans. But the worst fact about all this is that there is no record of expenditure on these works.
The officers have been taking money from the government to buy several things that doesn't even exist. Such kind of corruption is responsible for the poor condition of the dwellers of UP's rural area. Even after knowing almost everything about this, the government is not looking serious and trying to escape from taking any strict decision against the scammers.
Earlier, when Akhilesh Yadav was informed about the scam, he took a strange decision. Ignoring the proposal of Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh for a CBI inquiry, he handed over the case to EOW.
It is a famous saying in UP that if the government wants to throw any matter into garbage, then they order an EOW inquiry. However, this order has raised many unanswered questions that when Pandhari Yadav was placed in the CM's office, then will it be a fresh probe into the big matter or not? And will Akhilesh Yadav remove him from his office for a clean inquiry in the matter?
Earlier, during Bahujan Samaj Party regime in Utter Pradesh, Jairam Ramesh had also penned a letter to then CM Mayawati to initiate a CBI probe into the MGNREGA scam. But at that time no action was taken.
Being disappointed with BSP government's response, the central government sharpened their attacks on the state government. In the same bid, they also claimed that the BSP government is intentionally trying to save the tainted authorities in MGNREGA scam in Sonebhadra, Balrampur, Gonda, Sant Kabirnagar and three other districts.
After notifying that the funds of above mentioned UP districts are being openly misused, Ramesh said that he will ask Akhilesh Yadav for a thorough probe into the matter and would ask him to bring transparency into the usage of MGNREGA funds.
Ramesh also said that for effective implementation of job scheme, the centre has introduced CAG audit of funds. Its report will be submitted in the office by January 31, 2014. He also confirmed that the gram panchayats will be introduced with a chartered accountant for the first time for proper use of MNREGA funds. The centre has asked every state to elect 12 gram panchayats from every district which have claimed maximum spending on MGNREGA funds. All the collected statistics will be analyzed by a chartered accountant.
Earlier, being disappointed with Mayawati's approach towards the matter, Ramesh had also written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to take effective steps against the state government. And this latest appeal by Ramesh has raised Mayawati's tension even after being dethroned as the Chief Minister. And on the other hand, the Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party has again landed into the circle of questions with their latest order of EOW inquiry.
SOURCES : The Times Of India
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