Fake job cards: NREGA cell of UP Cong to start verification drive

There are 34,86,802 such cards in the state identified by Union Ministry of Rural Development, and the NREGA cell of UPCC would start spot verification of these cards.

“Our members in districts like Mau and Azamgarh have already started the work and have found how gram pradhans and secretaries are drawing money through these fake job cards. In Gram Panchayat Khekhamau of Azamgarh district about Rs 2.54 lakh were drawn through such cards; in Mau district about Rs 35 lakh have been drawn in the name of such cards,” said Sanjay Dixit,member of Central Employment Guarantee Council and also chairman of the MNGREGA cell of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee.

Dixit informed that he has also written to Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh demanding cancellation of all such cards in Uttar Pradesh.

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“It is a big scam and all the officers right from the state to the block level are involved. If these cards are not cancelled,the money would continue to flow to the wrong beneficiaries,” Dixit claimed.

The Union Rural Development Minister had started a separate column for all those cards which have different numbers but same head of the household in a particular panchayat last year.

As per the updated figures,in Uttar Pradesh,Hardoi district tops the list with about 1.92 lakh such job cards,where 2-15 job cards have been issued in a gram panchayat having the same name as the head of the family. Other districts,where over 1 lakh such cards have been found,include Barabanki,Muzaffarnagar,Kushinagar,Sitapur,Unnao,among others. Even VVIP districts like Sultanpur and Rae Bareli have over 50,000 such job cards.

While Congressmen claim that all these 34.86 lakh job cards are fake,officials say some of these cards might be genuine as there can be more than one person in the same panchayat with the same name but even they agree that such job cards going upto 12-15 in number need to be verified.

“In very rare cases can a panchayat have 12 people as head of the family with the same name. We are not talking about just any member. Entries show the same name of the head of the family and our workers would start identifying them and lodging FIRs if the government does not take any action” Dixit said.