Job scheme payment: MP minister Gopal Bhargava accused of lying in assembly

Special Correspondent

NewsBits.in

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh panchayat and rural development minister Gopal Bhargava has been accused of lying on the floor of state assembly regarding compensation to be given for delay in payments of rural job guarantee scheme in Sheopur district.

The minister has been accused of lying to conceal corruption in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS).

A forum of activists ‘Vichar Manch’ on Thursday held a press conference – highlighted a written reply of the minister Gopal Bhargava given on March 7 on the floor of the house, wherein he claimed that no compensation amount was due for MNREGS delayed payment cases in Sheopur district.

The members of the Vichar Manch Vinayak Parihar, Paras Sakhlecha, Akshay Hunka and Azad Singh Dabas said that the MNREGS website of the union government showed clearly that during the past three years (2014-15 to 2016-17) delayed payments worth about Rs 47.5 crores were made in Sheopur.

The delay in payments were reported since past ten years and thus a huge sum was due as compensation in Sheopur district alone, but the minister chose to mention that no such compensation was due, the activists said.

According to the MNREGS software of the union rural development ministry shows that during past five years the worth of delayed payments of job scheme was about Rs 5,500 crores and therefore compensation worth Rs 100 crore was due to the labourers.

“This huge compensation amount remains unpaid despite clear directive of the MP High Court in May last year that all such due compensation should be paid immediately and in future timely payment should be ensured under the scheme. But the MP government continues to mislead the people on the issue,” the activists said.

The forum presented the related documents before the media (the question-answer in assembly, the MNREGS website details on delayed payments and the HC decision) to make their claims.

They demanded that the minister Gopal Bhargava should clarify before people as to why he lied about the compensation amount. The minister should also make the position of government clear regarding the MNREGS delayed payments and the due compensation in context of the High Court decision.

The activists also demanded that the entire compensation amount for delayed payments of last 10 years should be made immediately and the compensation amount should be recovered from the officials who were responsible for delayed payments.