S Tahir-ul Haq
BARAMULLA, Mar 23: In an alleged scam, that has surfaced in MGNREGA scheme, lakhs of rupees have been drawn illegally from scores of job cards in Boniyar area of Baramulla.
"While MGNREGA wage payment has been fraudulently drawn from job card holders' accounts in Boniyar area, there are above 500 beneficiaries whose cards were misused by doing thumb impression against signatures on bank withdrawal," official sources alleged.
"Not only money has been fraudulently drawn without their thumb impressions but job cards were issued to the ineligible persons. There has also been rampant misuse of funds by way of enlisting underage beneficiaries and fake muster rolls," sources alleged. Sources alleged that there were hundreds of job card holders from whose accounts MGNREGA wages were fraudulently drawn. Some of them included Tufial Khan, son of Hafizullha Khan, Dawood Khan, son of Azizullha Khan, Mazlooma Begum, wife of Iqbal Khan, Amjad Khan, son of Amin Khan, Arif Khan, son of Mutwali Khan, Lateef Khan, son of Arif Khan and Sarbat Begum, wife of Arif Khan, all are residents of Niloosa Reshwari, Boniyar. The documents, which Early Times has in its possession, reveal that, "there is a misuse of MGNREGA funds in Boniyar tehsil as lakhs of rupees have allegedly been drawn illegally from bank accounts of these job card holders." "My bank account was opened without my consent and signatures. After five years, I came to know that my account was opened in Cooperative Bank at Chandanwari Boniyar. When my neighbour told me about this, I was shocked to find that my account stood opened in the bank," a local resident said. He alleged that there were hundreds of such cases in the department and urged the State Governor to order a probe into the alleged scam. He said the concerned department should be put to task for allotting MGNREGA works to illegal beneficiaries without informing the legal job card holders. |
