Amid political slugfest between the BJP and the TMC over the scams alleged by the Comptroller and Auditor General the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday swooped down at six locations in four districts to investigate into the alleged irregularities in 100-days’ work scheme under MNREGA project. Simultaneous searches were conducted at the houses of Bengal Government officials at Behrampore in Murshidabad district, Dhaniakhali and Chinsurah in Hooghly district, Jhargram and Salt Lake in North 24 Parganas adjacent to Kolkata, sources said adding documents related to fake account numbers and job cards were seized from various places.
According to sources about 2.5 lakh fake job cards were issued under MNREGA and wages paid in the said accounts. The cards were identified subsequently after the Centre framed new rules of linking job cards with Aadhar cards, officials said.
When asked to comment on the raids conducted by the ED, Bengal minister Shashi Panja said that with the approach of the general elections the BJP Government was trying to create situations to malign the State governments.