Graft in MGNREGA in Tripura, Centre tells apex court

MGNREGA provides a guarantee of 100 days of employment in a year to every rural family.

The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court there had been large-scale corruption in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employee Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme in Tripura, a state which goes to polls on February 18.

A view of the Supreme Court building in New Delhi. (Sonu Mehta/HT File Photo)

Appearing for the Centre, senior advocate V Mohana said that the government had “received a large number of complaints pertaining to irregularities and corruption in the implementation of the MGNREGA scheme in the state. The Centre sent an audit team to look into the allegations and it has confirmed that there was corruption”.

MGNREGA provides a guarantee of 100 days of employment in a year to every rural family.

However, the Centre is yet to file an affidavit in the court in this regard. The accusation came after advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO Swaraj Abhiyan, told the bench of Justice Madan Lokur and Justice NV Ramana that there were demands by the Tripura and Telangana governments for more Central funds. Bhushan argued that the Centre had drastically cut down the number of projected work days under MgNREGA and was also forcing states to slash their projected demand for funds due to which they were unable to provide employment.