Employees working at the Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Council of Madhya Pradesh do not have bank accounts to receive payments. Notably, the Council is the nodal body to ensure implementation of MGNREGA and disbursal of wages through e-payment.
Ajay Dubey, a right to information (RTI) activist, alleged on Tuesday that 12 employees of the MNREGA Council employed through outsourcing, who work at residences of senior officials including Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary MNERGA Council Commissioner and Rural Development Minister, don’t have any bank accounts.
Dubey, who is also a member of State-level vigilance and monitoring committee of the Panchayat and Rural Development Department of the State Gvernment, received the information through a RTI application filed earlier in the Council. He has also alleged that the Council did not furnish reply to the question that on whose orders these 12 employees have been posted at the residences of the officers and minister.
“It was told by the Council that the relevant file is in office of the Commissioner and therefore information cannot be provided,” Dubey stated, adding, “This is definitely a ploy of the Council to prevent the information from going public.”
MNREGA Council Commissioner Ravindra Pastuar, when asked about the allegation, said that he was on a trip to Mandla and therefore it was not possible for him to say anything about the allegation immediately. “However, when I return we can talk about this in detail as everything about the matter is on record,” he added.
Notably, the matter of these 12 employees working at the residences of the officers and minister was raised by Dubey earlier. Based on official information obtained through RTI application, he had alleged that the deployment of these employees at the residences of the officers and minister was illegal. “It is strange that the Council which is responsible for ensuring e-payments to lakhs of labourers in the State is unable to provide bank accounts to persons employed by it,” Dubey remarked.
He also said that if such impropriety is happening at the highest level it is no wonder that serious corruption is happening unbridled at the lowest rungs in MNREGA implementation here.