| MGNREGA payment ‘scam exposed’ in Sunderbani, senior officers silent | | | Ajay Sharma
Early Times Report
Sunderbani, Jan 19: Notwithstanding the tall claims of the Lieutenant Governor’s administration of tightening the noose around corrupt officials and bringing large scale transparency in public services, an expose of alleged scam in Sunderbani has raised several questions.
In the league of exposes, the recent one has surfaced from Sunderbani Tehsil of district Rajouri, wherein payment under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was deposited in the bank account of a person, who was never associated with any project of the Act.
“A person namely Suraj Prakash son of Ram Lal received a payment under MGNREGA for a project of construction of a well in the area, but he was never associated with any such project,” said sources, adding that Suraj Prakash has himself admitted this fact on a video, which went viral on social media.
Sources maintained that the reason for Suraj Prakash to make the video was that the local administration was pressurizing him to pay back the amount.
“Local administration, without accepting the mistake kept on pressurizing Suraj Prakash to return the amount,” said sources, adding that Prakash sensing ill intentions of the concerned officials, excused them saying that why did they transfer money into his account.
If sources are to be believed, the concerned officials transfer MGNREGA payment in random accounts, and then ask the account bearer to repay them.
“This is a clear cut cheating on the part of concerned officials, who siphon off public exchequer by playing this dirty ploy,” said sources, adding that when Suraj Prakash refused to pay the amount, one of the contractors beat him up, which forced former to file a written complaint in this regard.
Acting on the complaint, the local Station House Officer investigated the matter and registered an FIR No.92/2020, dated 22-08-2020 in the local police station.
It is pertinent to mention here that despite such a high profile case of cheating, senior officers of the administration are silent and no action is taken against Village Level Worker, GRS, Sarpanch and concerned panch, who are directly responsible for this mess.
Locals of the area maintained that no senior officer has taken cognizance of the matter, despite knowing that this money belongs to the poor.
“All the senior officers, who are directly or indirectly involved in the implementation of MGNREGA shall be summoned and explanation needs to be sought from them,” said locals, adding that this is a big mafia, eating upon the money of the poor like a parasite. They have also demanded a high level probe in this regard.
Meanwhile, talking to Early Times, ACD Rajouri Sushil Khajura said that he has no knowledge of this matter. |
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