The Deputy Commissioner of Darrang, Ghanshyam Dass, has ordered an enquiry into the alleged anomalies vis-à-vis sanction of schemes under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for the year 2018-19. Speaking to Northeast Now on Sunday, Dass informed that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Darrang Zilla Parishad, Tez Prasad Bhusal, will conduct an inquiry into the embezzlement of funds. “I have directed the CEO of Darrang Zilla Parishad to conduct an inquiry,” he said.
Few newly elected members of Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) of the district blew the lid off corruption and alleged that few officials working in the office of the Project Director (PD), DRDA, Darrang, is indulging in large- scale anomalies and corruption as regards the sanction of 250 MGNREGA schemes for the current fiscal year 2018-19 involving an amount of Rs 7.25 crore.
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The PRI members further alleged that while selecting most of the schemes, few officials are in cahoots with the middlemen and there is a “secret monetary deal” among them – 20 per cent commission on the sanction amount of each scheme is going on merrily.
Various schemes which had earlier been approved under Gaon Panchayat Development and Planning (GPDP) following the decision of the Gram Sabhas have reportedly been removed from the list and “schemes involving a huge amount of money have been picked up”.
Moreover, all rules have reportedly been thrown out of the window and official norms have been violated – no technical sanction and administrative approval – while picking up the “cash-rich” schemes. The anomalies came to light after the Project Director, Darrang DRDA, Gulam Mostafa Muktadir, recently distributed sanction letters to the PRI bodies under five different development blocks of the district. The Project Director could not be reached for his comments on the scam and neither was Bhusal available for his comments on the matter.
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