By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Pynursla police on Tuesday arrested Umniuh Tmar Iarbiniaw Village Employment Council (VEC) secretary, Lemon Khongliar, for allegedly forging the signature of one of the job card holders under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
Khongliar who was produced in court was remanded in 14-day judicial custody, sources informed on Tuesday.
Divulging details about the police investigation on this matter, sources informed that the police found that the VEC secretary had allegedly forged the signature of a job card holder Kohima Mawkhlieng.
However, police after investigation ruled out that Khongliar was also involved in the misappropriation and misutilisation of funds of the MGNREGS which were implemented in Umniuh Tmar Iarbiniaw village.
Sources revealed that out of the 70 working days in 2009, Mawkhlieng had worked for 56 days which was clearly indicated in the muster roll.
“The police have also established that Mawkhlieng had also received the full payment for the number of days she had worked. She herself had withdrawn the money since her signature was there in the register,” sources said.
However, sources revealed that the VEC secretary committed a blunder by deploying another person Btinlynti Massar to work for the remaining 14 days which was earmarked for Mawkhlieng.
“Khongliar also forged the signature of Mawkhlieng in the muster roll,” sources said.
During the period of 2010, sources informed that Mawkhlieng had not gone to work but had sent her son-in-law in her place.
Even though the wages for unskilled labour has been fixed at Rs 100 per day, sources said that the son-in-law of Mawkhlieng was paid Rs 150 since he was a skilled labour.
Sources said that the son-in-law worked for 38 days which equals to 57 days of work for a woman.
Since the son-in-law worked on behalf of Mawkhlieng so the remaining 13 days of allotted work was given to Btinlynti Massar, sources said. Sources said that the VEC secretary again forged the signature of Mawkhlieng.
On the alleged forging of signature of another job card holder Randy Khongthiang, sources said that the VEC secretary did not forge the signature of Khongtiang.
“The only problem is that Khongtiang had asked his sister to work for a few days. During this period, the sister had signed in the register. It was because of this that the VEC Secretary was alleged to have forged the signature of Khongthiang,” sources said.
On the alleged illegal deduction of Rs 300 from each of the job card holders, sources said that the decision to do so was taken during a meeting where both the VEC members and the job card holders were present.
“The amount was deducted since they had withdrawn some amount from the village fund to kick-start the implementation of the scheme. Since the VEC members were travelling frequently to the Block Office in connection with the scheme therefore some money had to be set aside for their travelling allowance and their refreshment,” sources said.
In the matter of the fake cash memos, sources said that after verifying them it was found that there were genuine cash memos.
The problem arose when initially the Pynursla BDO office had rejected some of the cash memos submitted by the VEC since it was not on a letter head and was not sealed.
“Actually, the local dealer from whom the VEC had purchased sand and stones which are required for construction purposes did not have any letter head or seal. These local dealers give the receipt for payment in plain paper which was not acceptable to the BDO’s office,” sources said.
He said that the VEC somehow managed to make an adjustment after the expenditures for the purchase of sand and stones were incorporated with the expenditures in the purchase of cement.
After this problem, the BDO issued a clear directive that no cash memo without proper letter head and cash memo would be accepted, sources said.
During 2010, the VEC arranged for the local dealers to tie up with the cement dealers so that the latter for the purpose of providing cash memos for their sales.
“Following this tie-up, the VEC paid the money to the cement dealer even for the purchase of sand and stones. The local dealer then collected the money from the cement dealer as per the agreement which both had arrived at,” sources said.
Taking all these facts into consideration, sources informed that the police finally concluded that the VEC had to make some arrangement since the BDOs were not accepting the cash memo on plain paper issued by the local dealer.
It may be mentioned that Umniuh Tmar Iarbiniaw Dorbar Shnong had ostracized two families of Pynursla after the city-based NGO Civil Society Women’s Organisation (CSWO) filed an FIR against the village council authorities on behalf of two job card holders under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) whose signatures were allegedly forged by the council secretary.
The CSWO lodged a complaint with the Pynursla police about a case of alleged misappropriation of funds under NREGS by staff of Pynursla Block Development office and secretary of village employment council, who is also the village headman, between 2009 to 2011.