TURA: A section of the job card holders under Karipara VEC under Mahendraganj in South West Garo Hills have expressed unhappiness over the re-appointment of an alleged tainted VEC Secretary who was removed earlier after members complained of anomalies in his functioning.
According to the job card holders, the Block Development Officer (BDO) of Zikzak Block had ordered the conduct of election to the post of VEC Secretary after the current secretary, was found to be involved in illegal activities.
As per the claims of the complainants, the VEC secretary included the names of six dead persons in the muster roll and withdrew MGNREGS funds in their name. After the illegal act came to light, he was directed by the BDO to delete the job cards of the deceased and to fully refund the money withdrawn in their name. The villagers alleged that while some money has been refunded, half of it is yet to be done.
The job card holders further alleged that projects allotted to the VEC have also not been done as per the standard work order, while some are yet to be started although muster roll wages have already been withdrawn.
Another allegation made by the complainants is that the names of job card holders are randomly being deleted from the list by the VEC Secretary. They claimed that the name of Shahazul Khandokar who held job card number- MG-05-017-567-500/12251 was recently deleted.
The re-appointment of the VEC Secretary in an election held on March 4 this year has irked the complainants who feel that someone other than the tainted secretary should have been appointed.
“We do not want a person like him holding the post anymore. We do not care who gets the post. But it should not be him and someone else should be appointed to the post,” they said.