Orissa dists under scanner to get Rs 170 cr

The Centre has agreed to provide Rs 170 crore under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme this year for the six districts of Orissa where a CBI probe is on.

The Centre has agreed to provide Rs 170 crore under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) this year for the six districts of Orissa where a CBI probe is on.

Following allegations of massive irregularities in the MNREGS work in Koraput,Rayagada,Nabarangpur,Kalahandi,Nuapada and Bolangir,the Supreme Court had asked the CBI to investigate the matter.

The SC order for CBI probe came after Delhi-based NGO,Centre For Environment and Food Security (CEFS),filed a civil writ petition alleging a massive scam. For over a month,CBI sleuths,headed by SP Ravi Kant,camped in these districts for preliminary inquiry.

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The Centre stopped the grant to these districts as it did not receive the action taken report (ATR) from the state government over the irregularities there.

The state government on Sunday sent the ATR on the scam. The government said four BDOs had been transferred so far,and action taken against 110. An amount of Rs 4.10 lakh fine was collected from them. The state government has appointed NREGA coordinators in all six districts. It has appointed 42 programme officers in each block of these districts. Ombudsmen have also been appointed in all six districts.

State Panchayati Raj Secretary Pradeep Jena said the the Ministry of Rural Development on Monday granted Rs 170 crore after receiving the ATR. The NREGS in these six districts were being managed from the unspent funds from last year.

The Centres refusal to release funds under NREGS to these six districts had taken political turn with BJD threatening to take the issue to the people. We will take the issue to the streets to protest the Central apathy to six districts, senior BJD leader Pyari Mohan Mohapatra had said. Even OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik said his party will request the Centre to provide financial assistance to the six districts.

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To assess and evaluate the performance of NREGS in Orissa,the CEFS had conducted a survey in 100 villages of these six districts between May and June 2007. The findings were shocking. It said the NREGS in Orissa has been virtually hijacked by officials responsible for the implementation of this scheme. There is open loot of taxpayers money,there is plunder of the poors right to guaranteed employment for 100 days and there is pillage of every single norm of democratic governance and administrative accountability, the CEFS said.