JAMMU: Ex-Member Parliament (MP), Rajya Sabha and former State president BJP, Shamsher Singh Manhas lambasted the administration for its failure to clear the dues under Central Government’s flagship scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in J&K since 2014.
Talking to reporters here, he said liabilities worth Rs 1000 crore are lying with the departments in terms of cost of material and part of labour component used for carrying developmental works. He alleged that the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj along with other concerned departments violated MGNREGA guidelines and in turn increased material component in the works allocated to contractors which majority were the small entrepreneur and locals of the respective areas.
He further alleged that the works were finalized after a thorough scrutiny by the officials ranging from ACDs , BDOs , AEEs , JEs, VLWs etc of concerned Department and if the administration labels the material of thousands of development works a violation of MGNREGA then the administration must take action / suspended the officials who supported allotted , reviewed and scrutinized the developmental works since 2014 and neglected their duties for more than half decade. He also demanded that the poor and marginalized people of J&K should not let at the empathy of the administrative high headed bosses who have utterly failed in dispensation of funds allocated by the Central Government leading to lapse of funds on numerous occasions.
The failure of UT administration in addressing the issue of liabilities for such a long period of time is a coveted attempt by some bureaucrats to malign the image of Modi Government in the eyes of the people of J&K even when the Central Government has always kept its coffers open for the people of J&K. Manhas also said that along with the people indulged in MGNREGA and other contractors also suffered the apathy of the Government as the site namely JKPAYSYS where the contractors were unable to upload their bills for clearance as the site crashed on March 30 and the administration paid no heed to the grievance of the contractors.
The senior BJP leader demanded that the liabilities of the people under MGNREGA be cleared at the earliest giving relief to the suffering people and the officials who were the real culprits responsible for non payment of the dues under the scheme be placed under suspension and fair probe be held in the matter.
