Osa Hans (70) is stuck to her bed for more than one year due to a broken leg, but her name appears as one of the labourers in the Muster Rolls (MR) of two tank improvement works in Talakot village of Ghatmal Panchayat under Nuapada district.
“Can’t you see my age and physical condition, how do you think that I have worked,” asks Osa and adds that, money has been deposited in her account and the Gaon Sathi took her ATM to draw the sum.
The MRs of Khapani and Chachrapada tanks improvement works show that Osa was engaged for 59 days in total and has received Rs 12,138 as wage during the year 2015-16 and 2016-17. Benudhar, son of Osa informs that, the Gaon Sathi has withdrawn about Rs 70,000 in last two years in this way. “The Gaon Sathi does this regularly, the amount is transferred to Osa’s account by maintenance of false MR,” says laxman Majhi of the village.
Bimale Majhi of this village also has the same experience to share. “I have not worked in any project, but have withdrawn money from my pass book two times, Rs 35,000 first and Rs 8,000 again and handed over the money to the Gaon Sathi,” she says. She further informs that the Gaon Sathoi had purchased a saree for Rs 800 and paid Rs 12,000 to her when she withdrew Rs 35,000 and had paid Rs 300 during withdrawal of Rs 8,000.
The villagers, by performing a social audit of three MGNREG projects of Talakot village on Monday last have found that Rs 2,87,708 in total had been misappropriated. “There is the mention of a road improvement work named ‘Improvement of road from Talakot Bhansipada to Chachrapada’ in the NREGA website with expenditure of Rs 1,88,964 as wage, but the
work has not been done,” mention the villagers in their complaint petition to the district authority.
The villagers had drawn the attention of the Collector, Nuapada about such bungling of funds in their village in land Development work under NREGS in 2014. The MRs in the NREGA website show that Rs 8, 58,053 has been paid to 40 beneficiaries of lD work in Talakot village, but actual amount paid was Rs 4, 55,424. “Rs 3,53,256 was misappropriated but no action was taken,” say the aggrieved villagers.
“We have been demanding for a detail inquiry, but the district administration is not taking any interest,” rue the villagers. There are four hamlets of this village located at a distance of one to two km from each other, but there is not proper road connectivity. The school and AWC of Belpatipada hardly run. There is no kitchen for school,
thus food is cooked in open space. The villagers blame the district administration for not paying any heed to their complaints.
“This area borders Chhatishgarh and is said to be infested by left Wing Extremists. Hence, the Government should at least take care of the basic needs of people, like connectivity, employment and PDS,” says scribe Tapan Dash.