Jharkhand News: 8 convicted in Palamu for irregularities in Birsa Harit Gram Yojna

THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK

Daltonganj, August 18: Birsa Harit Gram Yojna appears to be a new green pasture for earning easy money.

Yojnas are sanctioned without proper verification of the land possessing certificates. There are people who have no land of their own but have pocketed this Yojna by foul means of manipulation.

The Jharkhand State Social Audit Society is inspecting sites of this Yojna only to find holes in it.

A total of 8 persons have been ‘convicted’ under section 25 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Palamu’s Bansdih panchayat under Ramgarh block.

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Section 25 of MGNREGA specifies that anyone contravening the provisions of the Act can be penalized with a fine of upto 1,000 rupees on conviction.

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The conviction and fine have been pronounced by the BDO Ramgarh on August 14 against the 8 people.

This correspondent has a copy of the conviction cum penalty order of the BDO Ramgarh with him.

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Officials and Beneficiaries Penalized

Among the 8 convicted, four are ‘entities’, namely Mukhiya Sangeeta Devi, Panchayat Sachiv Suraj Kumar Singh, Junior Engineer MGNREGA Pankaj Kumar Singh and Rozgar Sewak Ravindra Ram.

These four have been fined to the tune of rupees 1,000 each under section 25 of MGNREGA.

However, apart from this fine of rupees 1,000 each, there is an outstanding recovery amount against each of these four for abuse of the government money.

The total recovery amount, including the fine worth 1,000 rupees, comes to rupees 28,072 each against these four on charges of contravening the provisions of the MGNREGA.

The remaining 4 are beneficiaries of Birsa Harit Gram Yojna who pocketed the Yojna by either influencing or tempting the four above-mentioned entities, beginning from Mukhiya to Rozgar Sewak.

These four beneficiaries are Mahesh Singh, Aarti Singh, Rinki Devi and Soram Devi. These four are of the village Peerhay under the Bansdih panchayat.

These four beneficiaries have been fined 500 rupees each only.

Their recoverable amount, including the fine, is 8,622, 9,975, 4,561and 5,914 rupees respectively.

All 8 are ordered to deposit the sum noted against their names without any delay.

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Conspiracy Between Officials and Beneficiaries

The conviction and fine have arisen following a detection of irregularities in the Birsa Harit Gram Yojna by an executive committee member of the Jharkhand Social Audit Society, James Herenj.

According to James, “These four beneficiaries have no land of their own for Birsa Harit Gram Yojna but by a surreptitious manner got one Yojna each of them.”

The Yojna has an estimated cost of rupees in the range of 4.49 lakhs to 4.53 lakhs.

Administrative sources said, “The four entities and four beneficiaries hobnobbed and conspired with each other to contravene the provisions of MGNREGA in Birsa Harit Gram Yojna.”

These 8 had gobbled up government money worth little over 1.35L in total, when right at the start of this contravention, the lid of the corruption was taken off by the executive committee member of the Jharkhand Social Audit Society.

Administration Vows Strict Action

Additional District Programme Coordinator of MGNREGA in Palamu, M Jawed Hussain, who is the Deputy Development Commissioner, said, “The contravention has been detected and legitimate actions drawn against all the 8. It will act as a deterrent to many more if trying to indulge in such murky affairs”.

“Birsa Harit Gram Yojna is beneficiary-oriented scheme. Such a malpractice is unacceptable,” he reiterated.

Palamu administration is all out to develop ‘MGNREGA Park’.

The idea behind the MGNREGA Park is to have a series of schemes of it under one convergence here.

MGNREGA registered unskilled labourers demand for wage payments and ease of payment as well.