Hatadihi: Though the government has been laying stress on creating jobs for migrants and locals under MGNREGS during the lockdown, the scheme has allegedly been an instrument for massive irregularities in Hatadihi block of Keonjhar, a report said.
The report said lakhs of rupees have been embezzled through fake muster rolls while no work had been done in reality.
Shockingly, the scamsters have shown in records that dead people, government servants, migrants and elderly people were provided works and their wages were paid.
Such scam was reported from Sholapata village of Shalania panchayat. As per official records, work of a farm pond at an estimated cost of Rs1.5 lakh has been awarded in the name of 70-year-old Adhikari Nayak.
The work code is 2403009/IAF/10518773.It was stated that the work was executed between May 27 and June 9 with help of 95 job card holders. Accordingly, muster rolls were also faked.
In the second week, the job card holders were paid Rs 1,449 for seven days.
The serial number 3956 in the muster roll was assigned to a dead person. A teacher named Satyabrat Barik, an elderly person Adhikari Nayak, Ainthu Jena, and Kartikeswar Jena were shown as job card holders. They were paid their wages. Job card numbers—3955 and 3960— were entered in the name of a non-resident worker Abani Nayak who was shown to have been paid his wages in the documents.
Notably, the project was not approved in the Gram Sabha.
PNN