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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | CBI may probe job scheme murders by Pheroze L Vincent

CBI may probe job scheme murders by Pheroze L Vincent

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published Published on Mar 17, 2011   modified Modified on Mar 17, 2011
The Union ministry of rural development is thinking of referring the two recent MGNREGS-related murders in Jharkhand to the CBI after arriving at the conclusion that the job scheme has been taken over by a contractors’ mafia in the state.

According to a highly placed source in the ministry, the Centre was now convinced that the Jharkhand government was not taking adequate measures to undo the wrongs in the scheme. “Since it’s obvious that the state government is not acting, we have to involve the CBI,” she said.

Union rural development secretary B.K. Sinha, who has just returned after a fact-finding trip to Jharkhand, said he found large-scale flouting of rules. “There aren’t supposed to be contractors. The village plans have not been done properly. Schemes existed only on paper and money was siphoned off,” he said.

Sinha reiterated minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s stand that if conditions did not improve, funds might be stopped.

Two recent murders have put the spotlight on the poor implementation of MGNREGS in Jharkhand. On February 18, labourer Subal Mahto received a severe thrashing at the hands of contractor Bhagirath Rajwar when he went to demand wages. He succumbed to his injuries 36 hours later at a Chas hospital. On March 2, MGNREGS activist Niyamat Ansari was killed by Maoists at Latehar. While some politicians have alluded to Ansari’s not-so-clean past, the state admitted in the Assembly that he was killed by Maoists.

“Whatever the state says, the fact is that he was murdered a day after he filed an FIR against the BDO for siphoning off funds. There needs to be thorough investigations,” said Sinha.

Another highly placed source said contractors had subverted the job scheme in Jharkhand. Though the state’s performance on this front was better than the national average, the fact remained that contractors took a cut from wages by fudging accounts.

Social worker Sachin Jain of NGO Vikas Samvad said: “The scheme requires fundamental reforms in governance. Contractors aren’t allowed in the scheme, which is supposed to be run by the gram sabhas.”

The gram sabhas are, however, subverted due to lack of manpower or funds. The need, said Jain, is to give them funds and technical training.

The Telegraph, 17 March, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110317/jsp/frontpage/story_13726693.jsp


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