Appointment of NREGS staff: Foul cry raised
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, May 11 2025: At least 8 posts under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Imphal East district have been found filled on contractual basis for a period of 11 months without the authorities concerned issuing any public notification or advertisement for a recruitment.

This was revealed after RTI activist Wahengbam Joykumar Singh filed an application seeking information on the engagement of MGNREGS staff.

The RTI application, filed with the District Programme Co-ordinator (MGNREGS), Imphal East, enquired if there had been any engagement of staff with the MGNREGS Imphal East, and whether the public was informed about the recruitment through advertisements on newspaper.

The application also sought details of educational qualification of candidates recruited as staff.

The RTI application was submitted on March 13, 2015, and the reply was received on April 15, 2025 .

Notably, the information sought was given late on April 15, 2025 after a first appeal was registered with the Appellate Authority, Deputy Commissioner of Imphal East on April 15 .

The RTI response revealed that the candidates for the 8 posts, comprising 4 IT Managers and 4 Technical Assistants, were identified, recommended and engaged by the District Programme Co-ordinator (MGNREGS), Imphal East, and an approval was sought from the Additional Chief Secretary (RD & PR) on February 29, 2024 .

The eight candidates were identified to be engaged as MGNREGS staff to address shortage of staff and meet the Ministry's deadline for completing various parameters, mentions the RTI response, also available with this paper.

While no information about any interviews conducted by any Board to appoint the 8 posts were given in the RTI reply, it revealed that separate orders for engaging four candidates as IT Managers with the MGNREGS Imphal East were issued by the District Programme Co-ordinator on March 7, 2024 .

The orders for engaging four Technical Assistants were issued on September 27, 2024 .

While a lump sum remuneration of Rs 8,000 per month for a period of 11 months was fixed for the post of IT Manager, that of a Technical Assistant/Section Officer was fixed at Rs 12,000 per month.

The expenditure is debitable from the 6% Administrative Head under MGNREGS, said the orders of appointment.

Raising serious concern about possible irregularities in the recruitment process, the documents provided by the District Programme Co-ordinator as RTI reply have no mention of any public notification or advertisement regarding the recruitment published on local newspapers.

The documents provided also contain no information on any interviews conducted by any Board for filling the posts.

The RTI reply further doesn't have information about any verification done to vet the certificates submitted by the eight candidates, engaged as MGNREGS staff.

Interestingly, the certificates enclosed in the RTI reply revealed that a candidate who has been engaged as an IT Manager had passed both BSc (Hons) Geography from Manipur University and One Year Diploma in Computer Application (DCA) from Oinam Ibohal Polytechnic in the same year in 2023 .

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