Opposition in Orissa urges Aiyar to probe corrupotion in NREGS

Bhubaneswar, Jun 15 (UNI) Four Oppostion parties in Orissa today urged Union Panchayeti Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar to order a probe in the allegations of corruption and irregularities in implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in the state.

Leaders of Orissa Gana Parishad, CPI, CPI(M) and Janata Dal(S), who called on the visiting minister at Raj Bhawan here, said the corruption in the NREGS be investigated by invoking clause 27 of the NREG Act so that necessary corrective measures could be taken to achieve the objective of the scheme.

OGP president Bijaya Mohapatra, CPI(M) secretary Janardan Pati, CPI assistant secretary Pravat Mishra and Janata Dal(S) secretary Krushna Chandra Patra told the minister that the NREGS has become a total mess in Orissa and frustrated the very objective of providing minimum guarantee of work and wages to the rural working population.

The Opposition leaders said though the Act provided that the state government must constitute a state council to monitor the scheme, no such council has so far been formed depriving the people to get the justice.

In a memorandum to Mr Aiyar, they also regretted that the state government had not made any budgetary provision in 2006-2007 to meet the expense thereby shattering the objective of the Act. The Job cards to the beneficiaries under the scheme were yet to be provided to the workers adding that the corrupt officials had been engaged in swindling the fund.

The Opposition leaders demanded that those registered with the scheme must be provided with job card without any delay and the Panchjyati Raj institutions should take care that the left out families in the villages be registered The memorandum said while the norm for engaging 30 per cent women has not been followed, the contractors and the corrupt officials had looted the fund meant for providing work to the local people.

They alleged that the government had not made any budgetary provision to provide matching grant although it was duty bound to provide at least 25 per cent of the material component in the scheme.

UNI DP PC AKP1423