Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kantilal Bhuria on Friday met Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh in New Delhi to bring to his notice the issue of “irregularities and lack of seriousness” in monitoring the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Madhya Pradesh.
Mr Bhuria is particularly agitated on the NREGA issue, which has acquired a political dimension after Ratlam district collector Rajeev Dube had allegedly shown disrespect towards him and other Congress MPs — Premchand Guddu and Meenakshi Natrajan — by turning late for the district vigilance and monitoring committee meeting earlier this week. This committee is mandated to evaluate the implementation of the government of India schemes in the rural areas, including NREGA.
According to Congress MP from Devas, Sajjan Singh Verma, the Ratlam district collector had on two earlier occasions refused to fix the monitoring committee meeting on dates chosen by Mr Bhuria. Finally, when the meeting was set for October 9, the collector turned up late whereas the other members had arrived on schedule and this led to heated arguments. Following this incident, the state government has asked additional chief secretary Anthony J.C. Desa to hold an inquiry into the Ratlam incident.
Talking to this newspaper, Mr Sajjan Singh Verma said that they have brought to the notice of the Union rural development minister that the provisions of the national rural employment guarantee Act are being violated in Madhya Pradesh.
They especially raised the Ratlam issue and told Mr Ramesh how the people’s representatives belonging to the Congress Party were being treated by the bureaucrats.
The government of India is in the process of conducting inquiry into several complaints linked with the NREGA, Mr Verma said, adding that a government of India team will now be coming to Madhya Pradesh to investigate complaints of irregularities in purchase of computers. Citing an example, he said there have been purchases far exceeding the amount quoted in tenders.