Agra:

babus

one year later

babus

An alleged major scam has been unearthed in the central government-run MNERGA scheme, whereare withdrawing money on the job cards of villagers who died several years ago.As per documents accessed by TOI, in one such case, resident of Richhoha village in Jagner block, Nahar Singh who died in 2010 was offered job on request in 2014. Nahar Singh was issued job card (no. 287) in 2009 but died in road accident. Though as per government record, Nahar Singh was offered job under MNERGA for 14 days in 2014, with a payment of Rs 161 per day. The records say that Nahar Singh dug up a pond and constructed embankment in Turkpura village.Speaking with TOI, Nahar Singh’s wife Sunita Devi said, “How can a dead man work for government and draw wages of Rs 2,254. Thehave forged the documents and took away fund for a job which was never done.”Ved Prakash, a septuagenarian social activist and resident of Richhoha village said, “There are half a dozen more such cases in neighbouring villages. Without the approval of gram pradhan, gram panchayat secretary, rozgar sewak, bank manager, MNERGA junior level officers such as junior engineer and others, no one can include name of a person in the job card and withdraw funds for job which is done only on papers. It is a nexus of fraudulent officials.”He said, “Job card holder Dharmveer and Haribabu and nearly 150 other farmers who have worked in 2013-14 and 2014-15 have not received a single penny for their labour.”When TOI contacted Bhupinder Singh Kumar, deputy commissioner of MNERGA for Agra, he said, “We are investigating how the names of deceased farmers were added in the job list. But I can assure you that no money was withdrawn.”