MGNREGS fund swindle by VEC secretary

SHILLONG, JAN 3: The Village Employment Council (VEC) secretary who is also the headman of Myntriang village Wolding Lamurong in East Jaintia Hills District allegedly misappropriated Rs 5.14 lakh sanctioned under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) for 2010 – 2011 and 2012 – 2013.

An RTI findings filed by the Khasi Students’ Union – Myntriang Unit (KSU-MU) with the Saipung Block Development Office on October last year revealed the misappropriation.

As per the RTI report, Lamurong, who is also the secretary of the VEC, in connivance with some government officials has misutilized an amount of Rs 5.14 lakh funded under the NREGS for the year 2010-2011 and 2012 – 2013, KSU-MU education secretary K Tangliang said.

Tangliang informed that following the report, a dorbar meeting based on the request of the KSU was convened on December to seek further clarifications on the manner the scheme is being implemented in the village and the alleged misappropriation unearthed by the RTI.

During the meeting, Lamurong clarified before the dorbar and the presence of the KSU leaders that in the year 2010-2011, the village had received the work order for Rs 6.46 lakh of which only Rs 3.88 lakh was paid to the job card holders as wages. However, the remaining Rs 2.58 lakh was not utilized with an excuse that it is kept aside for the purpose of purchasing materials, Tangliang informed.

With regards to the year 2012-2013, a total amount of Rs 7.32 lakh had been sanctioned for the village under the scheme. However, only Rs 4.67 lakh was again paid as wages to job card holders while the remaining amount of Rs 2.56 lakh was kept for purchasing materials, the KSU leader informed.

Of the total amount sanction during the two years, Rs 5.14 lakh has been allegedly misappropriated by the VEC secretary the KSU leader said

The headman further told the dorbar that out of the Rs 5.14 lakh, Rs 1.50 lakh (Rs 70,000 and Rs 80, 000) was allegedly paid to the office of the BDO (through the Executive Engineer) for early release of the funds and Rs 50,000 was for the purpose of getting new muster roll.

The Myntriang dorbar shnong has decided to give six months (till June 30) as deadline to the VEC secretary to immediately refund the Rs 2.50 lakh allegedly misappropriated.

On the other hand, the KSU Myntriang Unit said that it would soon take up the matter with concerned authorities  including the C&RD department, district deputy commissioner and BDO.

“We would demand the authorities concerned to immediately institute an inquiry to probe and take punitive action against those involve in the misappropriation of public money,” Tangliang stated. According to him, such manipulation on the part of the VEC functionary and others has to a great extent deprived the people for whom the money the government has specifically sanctioned.

It may be mentioned here, the headman of Myntriang had earlier demanded the union to withdraw the RTI filed by them on the said scheme.

The question now being raised is how can the office of the Saipung Block through the former BDO and Gram Sevak allowed the VEC secretary (headman) to withdraw the funds without any prove that the work has been done or not without conducting any inspection in the site where the work had been allotted, the KSU leader said.- By Our Reporter