India News | BJP Writes to Mizo Guv for Probe into Mismanagement of MGNREGS

Aizawl, Mar 14 (PTI) The BJP on Monday wrote to Mizoram Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati urging him to constitute a high-level inquiry committee to probe the alleged mismanagement of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and anomalies in its implementation by the state government.

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The party also lodged a complaint to Union Minister of State for Rural Development, Faggan Singh Khulaste in connection with matter, the vice-president of its central schemes monitoring and vigilance cell in the state, Lalremsangi Fanai said.

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Although the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) is part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre, it shares no alliance with the saffron party in the state.

The BJP in its letter to the governor alleged that there are anomalies and circumvention of rules in the implementation of the central scheme by the MNF government.

It claimed that the state government did not follow Section 12 of the MNREG Act, which provides for the formation of a state employment guarantee council and expressly mentions inter alia that "not more than 15 non-official members nominated by the state government from panchayati raj institutions, organizations of workers and disadvantaged groups” should be in the council.

The Act also mentions that not less than one-third of non-official members nominated under this clause shall be women, it said.

The Mizoram government has "unfortunately not followed these guidelines", it said and demanded that a fair number of non-official public representative members irrespective of party affiliation be immediately nominated as non-official members in the state employment guarantee council as provided by the Act.

Though the state rural development department notification in November 2020 mentioned that three members from villages councils, who belonged to the MNF, were appointed as non-official members, they have never attended the council meeting so far, it said.

The letter also alleged that the state employment guarantee council resolved to distribute MGNREGS material component works among district employment councils (DEC), block employment councils (BEC) and village employment council (VEC) in the ratio of 40:30:30 in violation of guidelines under the Act and rules thereunder.

"This is a clever way of siphoning off funds by dishonest officials and their accomplices. We have proof beyond doubt that a lot of money has been squandered in the system," the BJP alleged.

The village employment councils have never received 30 per cent fund earmarked for them as power is usurped by block and district authorities, it alleged and accused the MNF government of giving undue favours to party workers.

The BJP said that Khulaste during his visit to Aizawl in February was shocked to see the "flagrant violations of rules" and had taken up the matter during his meeting with Chief Minister Zoramthanga.

Fanai said that the governor assured them of necessary actions measures and take up the matter at the earliest.

Meanwhile, state rural development minister Lalruatkima denied the allegations and said that the required non-official members, including women, have been already appointed as per the guidelines.

He also ruled out that funds were squandered for other purposes.

The minister claimed that the state employment guarantee council had decided to utilise the material component at the levels of DEC, BEC and VEC in the ratio of 40:30:30 for better implementation of the MGNREG scheme.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)