Another NREGS scam surfaces in Dahod.

Indian Express; Anupam Chakravartty; Fri, 24 Jun 2011,

Vadodara : The Dahod district development officer (DDO) has ordered an inquiry after 50 labourers from three villages complained they had never worked for an MNREGA scheme that existed only on paper and that they were not paid a penny while the wages have been distributed in their names.

A year ago, an MNREGA scam worth Rs 4.5 crore was detected and a probe is still on.

The DDO, Jeno Dewan, said an inquiry has begun into the construction of 13 check walls, 18 protection walls and 10 community wells under MNREGA, based on the affidavits and applications filed by farmers from three villages in Jhalod Taluka. “We should be able to complete the probe in two weeks,” Dewan said, adding the amount involved in the fraud was still to be calculated.

On June 6, farmers from Raniyar Sarkari, Lilvathakore and Lilvadeva villages had written to the district collector and the DDO, alleging that the stating that the muster records they had obtained from the DRDA through Right To Information (RTI) applications showed that wages had been sanctioned under their names with their signatures while they never worked for the scheme.

“DRDA authorities failed to render information regarding work done in eight places. Similarly, 50 farmers whose names appeared in the musters never worked for the scheme, while wages were sanctioned under their names with their signatures. In order to prevent the duplication and fake signatures, we gave written affidavits,” said Vijay Pravin Koli, a farmer from Raniya Sarkari village.

The farmers alleged in their affidavits that the local officials from Baroda Gujarat Grameen Bank, through which MNREGA payments are being made in some parts of the district, and taluka panchayat officials were involved in getting duplicate their signatures to withdraw payments for the work that existed only on paper.

Koli said the signatures could have been faked by the postal department to fudge records.

Last year, the Dahod district administration had filed a police complaint against 48 persons, including 24 sarpanchs from the neighbouring Fatehpura taluka, in a scam amounting to Rs 4.5 crore in which farmers were not paid for two years for the works done under MNREGA in 2008 and 2009.