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Road from Taj to Red Fort, thanks to NREGS fraud by Ravish Tiwari
“Agra ke Taj Mahal se Dilly ke Lal Kila tak Sampark Marg.” According to records, this is one of the projects undertaken under NREGS, for which over Rs 1 crore was spent during the last financial year. But inquiries have revealed that there is no such project on the ground.

The matter came up during Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain Aditya’s recent visit to Varanasi.

According to the Management Information System (MIS), which records all activities under NREGS almost on real-time basis, there were 10 job cards issued under this project, which was being executed in Corute village that falls under Arajiline block in Varanasi district.

The MIS records said the work was sanctioned on April 1, 2010, with “as-6/2010” as the sanction code. Those who were engaged in the project were listed under seven different muster rolls (259140, 259141, 259143, 259144, 259145, 259147 and 259148). Interestingly, the 10 names listed under each muster roll are almost the same.

While workers under six of the muster rolls were paid Rs 1,600 each (equivalent to 16 days of work), workers under one muster roll (259145) were paid Rs 1,500 each.

According to the muster rolls maintained on the NREGS website, the payments were made on June 17, July 3, July 19, August 4, August 19, September 4 and September 20 last year.

Although the bank account numbers have been mentioned alongside each job card holder, the records suggest that the workers were paid in cash.

The job cards are suspected to have been forged as only two names in the muster rolls match those of two villagers from Corute village.

But the two villagers have not worked on the project, neither do the job cards mentioned in the records match those that they hold.

“The issue was brought to my notice during a review meeting in Varanasi,” Jain told The Sunday Express, after a meeting with top

officers of the Rural Development Ministry where

he discussed corrective measures.

Besides ordering the ministry to send a high-level team to look into the discrepancy, Jain has also sought to take up the issue with the state government.

“The officials offered several excuses, saying that it was a mistake by the data entry operator who did it wilfully because of a tiff with the local block development officer. But there are reasons to be suspicious as there were several such data discrepancies in MIS regarding works undertaken in nearby villages. In most cases, the expenditure incurred was more than expected, and the officers failed to provide supporting documents for the cost.

All of it cannot be the mischief of a data entry officer,” said Jain.

But while admitting the discrepancy, the officials engaged with the implementation of the scheme at the local level said it was just “mischief”.

“Yes, there was an entry of that kind in the MIS. That was some kind of mischief. No expenditure has been incurred. We have filed an FIR against the data entry operator. We have also recommended the suspension of the Block Development Officer,” said Chief Development Officer of Varanasi, Sharad Kumar, an IAS officer of 1999 batch.

“It was a lapse. We are getting the entire database checked now,” he added.

Sources in the Ministry confided that officials at the local level feed MIS data. “This is only an instance of systemic malaise in the execution of NREGS at the local level,” confided one official.

Significantly, the NREGS database claims to have undertaken over 53 lakh works across the country, with work in about 47 lakh projects still underway. In fact, it is on the basis of this MIS data that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi released the NREGS performance card in February this year.