By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The State Government has favoured the presence of more banking facilities to curb corruption in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the State.
“The best way to curb corruption in the implementation of the NREGS is to have more banking facilities in the rural areas where rampant corruption has been unearthed,” outgoing Deputy Commissioner of East Khasi Hills, Jopthiaw Lyngdoh, said.
Talking to reporters here on Wednesday, Lyngdoh who has taken over as the Commissioner and Secretary of ERTS, Power and District Council Affairs, said the government has taken several appropriate steps to ensure that corruption is controlled as far as implementation of this scheme is concerned.
“For the problem to be nipped in the bud, we need to have more banking facilities wherein people could have their own accounts and this could, to some extend reduce the possibilities of funds being diverted to individual pockets,” Lyngdoh stated.
Lyngdoh has also informed that the government has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the State Bank of India (SBI) and Axis Bank in compliance with this move.
“The government needs to embark on Information, Education and Communication (IEC) on a large scale to make the rural population aware of the do’s and don’ts of such developmental schemes,” he observed.
It may be recalled that many irregularities has been unearthed from various Village Employment Councils (VECs) and Area Employment Councils (AECs) pertaining to the implementation of the MGNREGS following which several arrests have been made.
