Fraudulent withdrawal of MGNREGS wage ; No action taken yet against frauds
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 02 2017:
Even as an Ombudsman concerned had issued direction to take action against those involved, including a GP Member, in withdrawing daily wages of job card holders under MGNREGS with forged signatures in the name of some job card holders, no action, other than refunding the amount, has been taken so far on those who are involved in the forgery.
This has exposed the manner in which the Govt places the status of Ombudsman .
According to a source, eight job card holders under Haraorou Tangkham GP of Imphal West district had lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman concerned on ground that their wages have been withdrawn without their knowledge and by forging their signatures .
The complaint turned out to be true after a probe was conducted.
Subsequently, the Ombudsman issued an award/order to take punitive action against those involved in the forgery case .
The work for which the wages of the job card holders were withdrawn is related to construction of pucca drain along the road from Ahanjao Lampak of Tangkham village to Kalika Lairembi .
Although the Ombudsman issued an order in this regard, no action has been taken up so far and the matter has been kept pending for about two years now.
The aggrieved job card holders, who are also not given job under MGNREGS since then, filed a writ petition to the High Court of Manipur recently .
Chief Secretary of Manipur, Secretary of Union Ministry of Rural Development, Principal Secretary/Secretary of RD&PR, Manipur, District Programme Coordinator MGNREGS/DC Imphal East, the then BDO of Imphal East-I Programme Officer of CD Block, Panchayat Secretary of Haraorou Tangkham GP, GRS, and BDO Imphal east -I CD Block SO (Technical) are listed as the respondents in the case .
In an affidavit, District Programme Coordinator/DC Imphal East said that the wages of the job card holders withdrawn with forged signatures by the then Ward Member of the GP Y Robita Devi have been refunded and the refund amount has been deposited in the account of Programme Officer, MGNREGS.
Pradhan T Hemabati also, through a written statement, certified the claim of District Programme Coordinator to be true.
The source further said that action needs to be taken against those officials concerned for the grave criminal offence of forging signatures apart from misusing fund meant for the public .
Since Ombudsmen have been appointed under Govt of India's instruction for smooth implementation of MGNREGS, their order or directives need to be strictly honoured and followed in the interest of delivering justice to the helpless job card holders, said the source.