Pure as fresh snow:

April 19/2011: The Orissa government has been quite embarrassed with the Court asking why a CBI enquiry should not be conducted into the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) fund embezzlement in the state. The concept of the working of this poverty amelioration program is not very clear to most urban dwellers. It’s a very simple method by which thousands of millions of rupees is siphoned off the exchequer without really achieving any durable assets. The project, meticulously worked out by some bureaucrat at New Delhi and the Act passed in the Parliament during UPA-1 and tomtommed as a major pro people policy thrust has done more damage to the economy and social fibre of the country than good.

Assuring the head of every household to 100 days of work in a year, the program initially made the first move of breaking up many families. Supervised by the local Sarpunch, families had to split to insure the major sons got a separate slice of the assured work days and not share it with the existing head. If the son(s) stayed put with the father, the Sarpunch would consider them as one family. When the 18 years or older son splits up and stays elsewhere with his family, the local functionary recognizes the break up and counts in a new family. This also results in the further pision of the meager land holdings in a state like Orissa. It has to be remembered that this scheme is valid for only Below Poverty Line (BPL) families where land ownership is anyway small.

However, no one really works in a MGNREGS project. The ‘job cards’ are up for sale to the powerful contractors who use machines like earth movers and bull dozers to execute projects. Everyone knows that this scheme strictly forbids usage of machines in the works. However, with the connivance of the Sarpunch, Block Development Officer, Junior and Assistant Engineer all goes hunky dory. Once these 4 people are in league and the District Magistrate agrees to turn a blind eye to any genuine complaint, the loot is water tight and untraceable.  No investigation could probably find any fault with MGNREGS in Orissa. Though anyone involved in the rural development sector knows how blatantly the tax payers’ money has been looted with everyone looking on and none able to do anything.

Making the MGNREGS embezzlement as a political issue is very immature because it shows that those shouting against the state government are not aware who actually is responsible. Like the ‘dal’ scam which was exclusively a district level loot, the MGNREGS malpractices are also a district level scams that could easily have been avoided had the District Magistrates/Collectors been a bit more honest. To state that they have been active partners in this huge fraud may not be correct but it has to be accepted that they are not in a position to claim total immunity from the allegations that are being slapped on them now. The IAS lobby may work over time and manage to help the DMs slide away through the CBI fingers by laying the blame on the Block level authorities or Sarpunches only. The truth, however, will always haunt these people who will always be viewed with suspicion about their silence in spite of numerous complaints being filed in every single of the 30 districts of the state.

The case of the missing NRHM funds may be the next skeleton in the cupboard of these bureaucrats and the state’s ruling politicians have to wake up to realities immediately. Otherwise once the blame game starts, they will again have to bear the brunt of the attack for crimes where they have done nothing.

Through the National Rural Health Mission, the Central government is dumping huge funds on the state. These monies are being apportioned off to the districts in big quantities with ear marked projects on which expenditures are to be made. Flatly said, that is not being done.

Like the Block functionaries siphoned off MGNREGS funds and Collectors remained ‘silent’ spectators, with NRHM funds it’s another set of 3 or 4 people who do the same with the District Magistrate overseeing the loot.

With NRHM, its a few Additional District Medical Officers (ADMOs) and a Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) creating project reports, submitting status and completion notes and finally the DMs accepting them so very innocently that a whole lot of money goes into their pockets with none able to do anything later. All paper work is usually immaculate. This plugs all holes in the story. The ‘needle of suspicion’ however, still points at the district heads and their tacit connivance could never be completely ruled out even if some of them say they are pure as fresh snow.