Naugaon: Irregularities continue to plague the implementation of Centre-sponsored Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) which aims to provide work to labourers in their own areas and check the migration problem.
As per sources, a woman sarpanch in Jagatsinghpur district was found to have enrolled the names of three of her family members as labourers under the scheme.
Notably, job card holders can apply for work under this scheme, following which the administration provides 100 days of work to the applicant labourers.
The Centre has given additional charge of programme officers to the block development officers (BDOs) and appointed assistant programme officers to supervise the scheme’s implementation.
Moreover, Gram Rojgar Sevaks (GRS) and Gaon Sathis have also been appointed to ensure and oversee the proper implementation of the scheme at the panchayat level. The Centre has also made the use of NMMS app mandatory to bring transparency to the implementation of the scheme.
However, despite counter-measures, there have been irregularities galore in the implementation of the scheme. Kabita Nayak, the sarpanch of Shikhar gram panchayat under Naugaon block in Jagatsinghpur district, enlisting three of her family members as labourers under the scheme is a case at this point.
According to the MGNREGS portal, three of Nayak’s family members have worked as labourers under the scheme in 2022-23 FY. According to available reports, Nayak’s husband Baikuntha Nayak, son Bikash Ranjan Nayak and daughter Subhasmita Nayak have been enrolled as labourers under the rural job scheme.
Reports said Baikuntha and Subhasmita were allotted 14 work days in the renovation works of Amrut Sarovar at Pateni village in 2022-23 FY. They have also been paid Rs3,108 as wages for 14 work days.
Similarly, 25 work days have been allotted in the name of Bikash Ranjan Nayak in the renovation of Hura pond and the village playground at Pateni. He has also been paid Rs 5,385 towards wages.
Later, Baikuntha and Subhasmita have been allotted 70 work days under various projects and Centre-sponsored Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and Amrut Sarovar renovation work at Pateni village in 2023-24 FY.
As mentioned in the portal, they have been paid Rs16,590 towards wages for working on the projects under the scheme.
Similarly, Bikash Ranjan Nayak has again been allotted 35 work days and given Rs8,295 towards wages in the 2023-24 FY. BJP’s Scheduled Caste Morcha observer Ratnakar Tarai has questioned how the family members of a sarpanch could be enlisted in the scheme meant exclusively for poor labourers.
Moreover, how the son and daughter of the sarpanch, who are staying outside, could get job cards and work as labourers, he asked demanding a high-level probe to unravel the irregularities.
Tarai alleged the NMMS app has not been used properly to click the photographs of the enlisted labourers during implementation of various MGNREGS project works.
Efforts to contact sarpanch Kabita Nayak over the phone for her comments on the issue proved unsuccessful as she did not respond to the questions and cut off the call.
When contacted, BDO Tapan Mohapatra said a probe will be conducted into the allegations and action will be taken after receiving the probe report.
PNN