Residents from Katchaikatti in Vadipatti taluk submitted a petition to Collector M.S. Sangeetha here on Monday to take action against alleged irregularities committed by the officials in alloting works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
Gnanasekaran, a villager, alleged that the overseer who registers the attendance of the workers on National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS), records the attendance of people who were absent on the day.
As a procedure, the overseer has to click all the workers together who were present in a day for the work and upload it on the application, he added.
“Here, the overseer, by using the same photograph, registers people who were not at all present on the day,” he alleged.
Displaying the physical records of the attendance registration on the application, he said that the same photos were being used twice and even thrice but in different names.
“By doing it, the overseer takes all the money the worker has to get. Also, by doing it, he prevents other eligible workers from getting work under the scheme,” he added.
While the rules of MGNREGA have clearly stated that heavy equipment should not be used for any works done under the scheme, the overseer has used ₹7.1 lakh for equipment to construct a cement check dam in Katchaikatti, Mr. Gnanasekaran alleged.
“When the actual salary for the workers under the scheme ₹319, the workers are usually given only around ₹230 to ₹250,” he stated.
But, for those whose attendances were forged, the records showed that they received full amount of ₹319, he added.
“We have detected similar irregularities in five villages- Katchaikatti, Andipatti, Ramaiyanpatti, Poochampatti and Geminipatti – in Vadipatti union alone,” he said.
When the cheated amount as per their calculation has reached more than several lakhs, what would be the loss the government would have incurred when similar fraud was committed in all the villages, he asked.
“The cheating cannot be confined just to the overseer, but officials starting from village level to Block Development Officer are involved in this,” he added.
Published - April 07, 2025 08:09 pm IST
