By Our Reporter
Shillong: In yet another incident of alleged misappropriation of funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the people of Pynursla block including members of the Village Employment Council (VEC) have complained of non-payment of wages to the job cards holders despite attending work for 70 days between September 2011 and February 2012.
The Block Development Officer of Pynursla C & RD Block, PS Tynsong, had, earlier, clarified that wages cannot be disbursed to the job cards holders following the non-availability of funds in the district.
He also clarified that according to the guidelines, all the projects will be sanctioned for only 70 days in the first stage and after all the blocks have reached the given target, the funds for the remaining 30 days would be sanctioned. “Due to the inability of these blocks to achieve the given target, the district is hesitant to sanction the remainder of the 30 days of wages to the job card holders,” Tynsong said in a letter addressed to Chairman of Umniuh Tmar VEC, Rustan Mawkhlieng, recently.
“It is surprising to note that despite the non-availability of funds, the block office is directing the respective VECs to implement various projects in the villages within the Pynursla block wherein the expenditures have to be borne by the VECs themselves,” HPSO Ri War Mihngi president R Mawkhlieng said, while mentioning about their findings from an RTI application they had made to the Pynursla Block Development Office.
It is learnt that within the Pynursla Block, there are 98 VECs and 23 Area Employment Councils (AECs) with a total number of 11,422 registered job card holders.
“Under the MGNREGS, 100 days of work are allotted to each job card holder but in this case only 70 days have been allotted to each of them. The question is where did the funds for the remaining 30 days go?” Mawkhlieng questioned.
The HPSO also claimed that the funds to the tune of Rs 3,42,66,000 were siphoned off every year which amounts to Rs 10, 27, 98,000 for three years.
The organisation has demanded a clarification from the government on the whereabouts of the siphoned funds. “It seems that the funds have been diverted to someone’s bank account or pocket,” Mawkhlieng claimed.
He, further, stated that if such loopholes continue to surface in the future, the organisation will be forced to ask the government to terminate this scheme which is not being implemented in its true spirit.