Irregularities in road project of NREGS

MALDA, Dec. 19: Ministry of Rural Development of the Central government has sent an official to Malda to inquire into the financial irregularities of a rural road project under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) following a compliant lodged by the union minister for I&B Mr PR Dasmunshi.Mr Debendra Singh, a retired defence official and presently a member of national monitoring team for execution of NREGS, arrived here yesterday. After interacting with the district nodal official he visited the site under Bhagabanpur gram panchayat area in Chanchal-I block in northern Malda today. Mr Singh will stay here till tomorrow for inquiring into the case and visit some sites where NREGS has been implemented successfully along with the district officials. In April the district authorities had received a complaint from the local people of Bhagabanpur gram panchayat and a team comprising Sabhadhipati, Malda zilla parishad, additional executive officer and other officer bearers of panchayat had inspected the site for inquiry. According to the district nodal officer for implementing NREGS to provide 100 days job for rural unemployed, the district had detected that quality of stuff (moram) for construction of a rural road was worst. The inspection team had found that the poor quality morum was stacked at the site but not used, he said. The team had suggested floating fresh tender for supplying materials. sns