Plagued by rampant financial irregularities in the implementation of the flagship MGNREGA, the UPA government will launch a biometric system to plug loopholes in the scheme on August 20, birthday of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
His son and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who has often expressed concerns over corruption in the rural job plan, is expected to attend the event.
There are large-scale reports of attendance records on MGNREGA work sites being forged by contractors and serious irregularities in the payment of wages, despite opening of bank accounts in the names of the workers.
Manual attendance of workers on site has led to complaints of ghost workers, discrimination in awarding work and delays in preparation of muster rolls resulting in delayed payments, said sources. These bottlenecks are defeating the purpose of the scheme started in 2006 to provide sustenance to the poor. Biometric attendance on site is expected to eliminate a large number of such problems. The system will help check forgery in the muster rolls.
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Madani says will surrender
Age Correspondent
Thiruvananthapuram
Aug. 15: The People’s Democratic Party chairman, Mr Abdul Nasser Madani, an accused in the Bengaluru blasts case, said on Sunday evening that he would surrender before the court “within a short period”.
Mr Madani, who spoke to mediapersons at his camp in Anwarasserry, also said he was willing to be arrested at any time.
However, the PDP leader did not specifically state when he was going to surrender before the court.
Mr Madani reiterated that he had no role in the Bengaluru blasts and alleged that his being made an accused in the case was part of a big conspiracy. “This is an attempt to endanger me,” he said.
He added that he did not surrender voluntarily before the Karnataka police team since he was wary of being ‘finished off’ on the way.