Opposition demands special Assembly session on NREG scandal

Bhubaneswar, Aug 21 (UNI) Three Opposition political parties in Orissa today demanded a special Assembly session be convened and an All Party House committee constituted to inquire into the 'large scale corruption' in the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) Scheme.

In a joint statement here, Orissa Gana Parishad president Bijoy Mohapatra, CPI-M state secretary Janadaran Pati and CPI state secretary Nityananda Pradhan alleged out of Rs 733 crore spent in the state in 2006-07 under the scheme, a sum of Rs 500 crore had allegedly been siphoned.

The Opposition leaders, quoting the Centre's survey report for Food Security(CFC), said ''Against the claim of 7.99 crore man days made by the government, only two crore man days were created during the year under the scheme.'' The CFC report, they said, was based on a detailed survey of 100 villages in the Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) districts of the state.

Out of the 100 villages surveyed by the CFC, not a single job card was issued in 18 villages while no work had been executed in 37 villages, and in 23 villages the job card was kept with the Village Level Worker (VLW) and Junior engineer of the block.

In three villagers the payment was not made even eight months after the completion of the work. Focussing on the ongoing situation, the political party leaders said an All Party House committee should be constituted to inquire into the misutilisation of the NREG fund.

UNI