A senior Uttar Pradesh Congress leader and former convenor of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(MGNREGA) monitoring committee Sanjay Dixit has urged Union Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh to order a probe into the irregularities in implementation of the scheme between 2011 and 2013.
Dixit, who is also member of the Council for Advancement of Peope's Act and Rural Technology(CAPART),an organisation of the Union Rural Development minister, said that state government officials shared the booty with the officials of the Union Agriculture Ministry and this should be brought to light."The union minister should order probe to bring guilty to the book," he said.
Ramesh has admitted several times about the irregularities in the implementation of the MGNREGA in the state but still he has done nothing to prevent the scam or stop the funds of the state government,'' he said.
In a letter dated November 13, which was released to the media here on Sunday the Congress leader said that in September Ramesh had assured him to probe the entire matter but so far no action has been taken.
The irregularities involved are to the tune of several hundred crores of rupees where the state officials misused the MGNREGA funds by illegally using it for administrative expenditure without prior sanctions. Due to this misappropriation, about 50,000 contract labourers in the state are yet to receive their 75 per cent of wages between 6 months to two years.
He claimed that there are clinching evidences against the state officials but still the Union ministry was not acting tough and stopping the funds while the officials involved in the scam were enjoying all the benefits.
''Under section 27(2) of the MGNREGA the Centre has all the power to stop the funds and punish of the officials involved in the irregularities. But unfortunately, the Union ministry was keeping a blind eye on the issue and was regularly sanctioning the funds even after such scam,'' he said.
Dixit had earlier filed an FIR at Hazratganj police station in the state capital over the irregularities and submitted a 1500 page Management Information System (MIS) report of 47 districts in the state.
The Uttar Pradesh Congress leader said he had met the state officials in October 2011 and on his perusal the state government had ordered a probe into the entire corruption but unfortunately nothing had happened so far. ''Now the onus is on the Central government, which implements and funds the entire scheme, to take a harsh decision against the erring state government. But nothing has happened so far,'' he said.Dixit said irregularities in the Act have affected the poor labourers of the state the most and they are unable to get their wages in time.
Admitting that the Union Rural Development ministry had written several letters to the state government demanding to recommend probe into the irregularities, Dixit said only writing a letter to the state government would not solve the problem. There was a need to take strict action against the guilty officials involved in the corruption, he said.