MGNREGA fund bungling case: FIR yet to be lodged

JAMSHEDPUR: The state MGNREGA commissioner’s order of August 25 to lodge an FIR against government officials for embezzling government fund is yet to be implemented.

The state MGNREGA commissioner Paritosh Upadhaya had ordered deputy commissioner Amitabh Kaushal to lodge an FIR against the perpetrators of the scam worth Rs 20 lakh - involving three road construction schemes - under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Kalikapur panchayat under Potka Block.

Upadhaya in his letter to the DC on August 25 had said: “File FIR and lodge certificate cases against the officials, employees and mukhiya for recovery of the embezzled fund. Also take administrative penal action against the block project officer and rozgar sevak Rajesh Gupta at the district level.”

He had also called for legal and departmental actions against former Potka block development officers (BDOs) Sanjay Sandil and Payal Raj, BPO Mala Kumari, panchayat sevak Anand Gupta, mukhiya Hapna Mahali and junior engineer Birendra Singh.

Upadhaya issued the order after a two-member probe committee from state rural development department consisting deputy secretary Shivendra Prasad Sinha and executive engineer Avdesh Sharma confirmed the scam and defalcation of MGNREGA funds.

However, the DC said: “State MGNREGA commissioner has stressed upon recovery of fund from the perpetrators and accordingly we’d issued an interim order asking the persons involved in the scam to deposit the embezzled government fund by September 30. Almost 80% of the amount has been returned as of now. We’ve also issued show cause notice to the officials and the replies are coming.”

As per information available, one of the accused BDOs Sanjay Sandil has replied to the show cause notice.

Three of the 12 accused officials have so far returned ` 5.26 lakh in two different cases.

The DC, in his order, had asked five accused in one case to deposit ` 2.06 lakh each while in the other case seven accused were asked to deposit ` 1.14 lakh each.

Meanwhile, RTI activist Dinesh Mahato has urged chief minister Raghubar Das to direct the district administration to act on the MGNREGA commissioner’s order and lodge FIR and initiate other punitive actions against the accused officials.

ORDER WAS ISSUED AFTER A TWO-MEMBER PROBE COMMITTEE CONFIRMED THE SCAM AND DEFALCATION OF MNREGA FUNDS