MP cancels NREGA cards to MPs,MLAs

Madhya Pradesh has set in motion a process to cancel the NREGA job cards given to elected representatives,including MPs and MLAs...

Madhya Pradesh has set in motion a process to cancel the NREGA job cards given to elected representatives,including MPs and MLAs,in the wake of an allegation that wages were paid to Union Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Arun Yadav and his family members in Borawa village of Khargone district.

Yadav,who represents Khandwa in the Lok Sabha,had taken up the matter with the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh and also Union Rural Development Minister C P Joshi.

The state government said wages were never paid to the minister or his relatives,maintaining that there was no irregularity in the schemes implementation. A newspaper had carried a report saying wages were paid to Yadav and his family members in 2008.

Collector Khargone Kedar Sharma,who inquired into the matter,told The Indian Express that the details mentioned in the report were not found on the schemes website. Money was neither procured nor wages paid,he said. Someone seems to have hacked the website by first inserting the details and then removing them, he claimed.

The newspaper had submitted a copy of the printout taken on October 11 that had details of wages paid to the minister and his relatives.

Sharma said an FIR was being lodged against unknown persons for allegedly hacking the website. Simultaneously,the collector has also sacked a data manager and a data entry operator attached to Kasarawad Janpad Panchayat.

State Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Gopal Bhargava said all collectors had been asked to cancel job cards given to prominent persons and elected representatives. While job cards of elected representatives would be immediately cancelled,the cards of other prominent persons would be cancelled in consultation with the in-charge ministers.

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Sharma said when the scheme was introduced,job cards were given to everyone,irrespective of whether they asked for it or not.

Funds to state might stop if complaints persist: Joshi

Satna: Union Minister for Panchayat and Rural Development C P Joshi on Sunday said that Centre would have to stop sending funds to the state under NREGA if complaints in its implementation continue. Addressing a panchayat sammelan organised here by the Satna district Congress,Joshi said that as a minister it was his responsibility to ensure that there was no corruption in the implementation of NREGA. He said that the purpose of NREGA was not merely to construct roads but also to ensure that people get some employment. Below Poverty Line lists would be prepared afresh so that well-off people were removed from them,he said. PTI