Zero tolerance for corruption in NREGA: Raghuvansh

New Delhi, Feb 1 (UNI) Asserting zero tolerance for corruption under the National Rural Employment Gurantee Scheme (NREGA), Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh today said the government has taken stern action against those guilty following the draft report of the CAG about corruption in the scheme.

Addressing a press conference on the second anniversary of the revolutionary NREGA, Dr Singh said in Madhubani district of Bihar, FIR had been lodged and action was being taken against the official responsible for corruption in NREGA.

Disciplinary action had also been initiated for wrong reporting on figures on labour employed in Chamol district of Uttarakhand, he added.

He said all the states had been asked to report on the action taken against those responsible for corruption by January 31 and most of them have abided but only a few Northeastern states were left.

Dr Singh said he was satisfied with the action taken against the guilty and assured that adequate steps were being taken to prevent recurrence of such incidents.

Moreover, to prevent such incidence of corruption in future the government is planning a number of measures to ensure transparency, including launch of a website today which would have all the details about the muster rolls, job cards, number of people getting employment.

People could get all the information from the site and report about any irregularity or grievances about the scheme.

The minister highlighted the positive impact that the NREGA had brought on the rural people of the country and said 2.61 crore people have got employment under the scheme and 90 crore mandays employment was generated in 2006-07 and 85 crore mandays till December, 2007.

He said in the financial year of 2007-08 the Centre had provided Rs 10,500 crore of which Rs 9000 had been spent so far.

In the third phase of the scheme all the 600 districts of the country would be covered from April 1, he said.

He said the scheme had transformed rural India by empowering people with guaranteed jobs, created infrastructure and taken steps to improve their life.

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