Kolkata: The West Bengal government is taking extreme precautions to ensure that there is no misuse of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA) funds that chief minister Mamata Banerjee has promised to disburse on February 21 from the state exchequer, officials handling the operation said.
“The state panchayat and rural development department ordered on Tuesday that Adhaar cards and bank accounts of all listed beneficiaries must be scrutinised again. All data has to be verified against the original list,” a state government official said on condition of anonymity.
“The precautions are being taken to ensure no fake beneficiary can get the money. New Excel files, bearing the names of beneficiaries, will be protected by passwords to which only block development officers (BDO) will have access,” the official added.
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Targeting the Centre at a Trinamool Congress (TMC) agitation on February 3, Banerjee announced that her government would pay 2.1 million MGNREGA beneficiaries their pending wages for two years, although the Centre stopped disbursing its share in 2021.
On Tuesday, the Enforcement Directorate initiated a probe into allegations of corruption in the implementation of the scheme in Bengal and conducted raids at four locations.
{{/usCountry}}On Tuesday, the Enforcement Directorate initiated a probe into allegations of corruption in the implementation of the scheme in Bengal and conducted raids at four locations.
{{/usCountry}}Banerjee has alleged that the Centre has not paid Rs.6,913 crore since 2021-22 under MGNREGA amid a tussle between the TMC and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP, however, has claimed that the funds were received by the Bengal government but it went to TMC leaders via bank accounts of fictitious beneficiaries.
State government officials said panchayat department workers will conduct the door-to-door scrutiny before the list of beneficiaries is sent to banks for cross-checking.
Thereafter, BDOs will get the lists and send them to the respective district magistrates (DM) who will receive the funds from the panchayat department by February 19. The disbursement will be made on February 21 through specific bank accounts.
The Union ministry of rural development stopped the MGNREGA funds for Bengal in December 2021. According to state consumer affairs minister Biplab Mitra, the Union ministry sent a letter on March 9, 2022, saying the action was taken under Section 27 of MGNREGA.
Section 27 of the MGNREGA empowers the Centre to give directions.
“The Central government may, on receipt of any complaint regarding the issue or improper utilisation of funds granted under this Act in respect of any scheme if prima facie satisfied that there is a case, cause an investigation into the complaint made by any agency designated by it and if necessary, order stoppage of the release of funds to the scheme and institute appropriate remedial measures for its proper implementation within a reasonable period of time.”
During a visit to Kolkata in October last year, Union minister of state for rural development Sadvi Niranjan Jyoti said, “The Centre has no intention of stopping the funds. It will be released as soon as the state government furnishes accounts of the money spent so far.”
On February 3, Banerjee wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi refuting the Comptroller and Auditor General’s recent report on the delay in submission of utilisation certificates for various central schemes.