E-Paper
West Bengal recovers ₹52.3 lakh misappropriated NREGS fund
Kolkata: West Bengal has recovered around ₹52
Kolkata: West Bengal has recovered around ₹52.3 lakh in wrongly disbursed wages under the rural jobs guarantee scheme, officials said, days after the central government alleged irregularities in central welfare programmes in the state.
The Union government had received some 3,358 complaints of alleged malpractices from social audit units of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, an official of the state’s panchayat and rural development department said on Thursday. There were allegations of around ₹250 lakh being misappropriated.
“Teams deployed by the Centre had also found several irregularities during their visits in 2019 and 2021, following which the state was directed to recover the misappropriated funds and submit action taken reports,” the official said, declining to be named.
The development comes in wake of irregularities reported in the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, where applications of people with multistoried houses were supposedly approved. With panchayat elections drawing closer in the state, allegations of corruption in the central government’s housing and rural jobs schemes have become the latest flashpoint between the Trinamool Congress government and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Central funds were frozen when the state failed to submit the action taken reports. Under section 27 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, the Centre can freeze funds if there are allegations of malpractices.
“It was only after the funds were frozen that the state started taking action. While around ₹52.36 lakh has been recovered and more than a dozen FIRs (first information reports) have been filed, out of which four were against government officials,” a senior official of the state government said, seeking anonymity. “Disciplinary proceedings, show-cause notices, evidence collection and framing of article of charges were done against 119 personnel.”
The top three districts where funds have been recovered are South Dinajpur ( ₹19.12 lakh), North 24 Parganas ( ₹10.58 lakh) and East Midnapore ( ₹9.71 lakh), officials said.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and TMC leadership have been accusing the Centre of not releasing funds under the rural jobs programme for more than a year now. The BJP has accused the state of misappropriating funds under the central scheme and bloating figures of job cards.
This has come as a major concern for the state government ahead of the panchayat polls scheduled early next year as rural people who had worked under the scheme were not getting paid on time.
Earlier this week, Abhishek Banerjee, TMC MP and the party’s national general secretary, raised a question in the Lok Sabha on how much money the Centre owes to the state under the flagship welfare scheme.
Funds owed to West Bengal was the maximum among states, according to data shared in Parliament by Niranjan Jyoti, junior rural development minister, on December 20.
Pending liabilities for material component for West Bengal was ₹2,221 crore in 2021-22 and ₹464 crore so far in 2022-23. Pending liabilities for the wage component of the scheme was ₹1,916 crore in 2021-22 and ₹832 crore in 2022-23.
“@BJP4India is WILFULLY DEPRIVING THE PEOPLE OF WB for REJECTING THEM. Union owes states ₹10,162 cr in MGNREGA dues as on 14 Dec. BENGAL IS OWED 5433 cr ie MORE THAN 50% OF TOTAL DUES owed to states. YOUR NUMBERS NOT MINE,” Abhishek Banerjee tweeted on December 21, citing the official data.
BJP leaders in West Bengal, however, have mounted an attack against the TMC, alleging that the state government had issued fake job cards to inflate wage figures.
“WB Govt fraudulently swelled up this figure by ‘Overinflating’ Wages, amounting to 1000s of Crores ( ₹) while embezzling MGNREGA funds by using “Fake” Job Cards. Under the corrupt TMC rule, WB ranks 1st in India in issuing Fake Job Cards. 4 lakh Cards have already been discarded,” tweeted Suvendu Adhikary, leader of the opposition, on Wednesday.
The TMC, however, hit back at the BJP, alleging that states ruled by the saffron outfit accounted for the highest number of unauthenticated job cards.
“BJP-ruled UP registered max no. of DELETED job cards. BJP-ruled UP, MP, Maha, K’taka & Guj recorded max no. of UNAUTHENTICATED job cards. Why did the job cards have AUTHENTICATION FAILURE? Why were they DELETED? Can we conclude that they were FAKE? @SuvenduWB, care to answer?” tweeted Kunal Ghosh, TMC spokesperson, on Thursday.
