From Preetam Brahma Choudhury
Kokrajhar: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed before the Gauhati High Court in the matter of illegal, unchecked and rampant corruption by which funds were embezzle in all the departments such as Panchayat and Rural Development , Welfare of Plain Tribes and Backward Classes, Sports, Agriculture, Textile and Handloom , Information and Public Relation, Transport, Education, Social Welfare, Fishery etc by the Executive Members of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), officials, suppliers, contractors etc causing great prejudice to the public at large.
Two advocates- Narapati Brahma of Kokrajhar and Ranjan Kumar Baruah of Dispur -filed the PIL. The PIL respondents are the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), ministry of home affairs, Government of Assam and Governor of Assam.
The petitioners in the PIL stated an unchecked and rampant corruption within the four (4) districts of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) i.e. Kokrajhar, Udalguri, Baksa and Chirang from the last 15 years, more particularly from the year 2010.
It stated that huge amounts of funds were embezzled by the Member of the Executive Council in collusion with the various authorities under BTC Principal Secretary. “The people are aware of all the rampant corrupt practices that have been prevailing in Bodoland Territorial Council ( BTC),but the democratic voices of the common people were always silenced through some means and had filed the present petition with a prayer that an enquiry may be conducted by an independent agency such as CBI, NIA etc in order to investigate into the unchecked and rampant corruption from 2010 to 2020, it read.
The petitioners stated that a social audit of MGNREGA in BTC was conducted by involving Gram Sabha, eminent persons and groups of persons. It was found that most of the works sanctioned under MGNREGA within the four districts BTC had remained incomplete. The rate of completion of the works under MGNREGA is only 35.5% and job card holders get 27.5% of the wage that has been credited to their bank account.
The petitioners in the PIL stated that a high level of corruption had taken place during the payment of wages to the job cardholders and only 27.5% of the wage has been provided to the job cardholders, instead of crediting the wage to their bank accounts and with respect to the utilization of money sanctioned for the materials only 22.1% of funds sanctioned for materials are utilized in the MGNREGA works.
“It is distinctive that the Gram Rozgar Sevak (GRS) and engineers have issued the wrong completion certificate for the works. In the execution process, the Gram Rozgar Sevak or Chairman of the Village Council Development Committee (VCDC) or the self-proclaimed contractors who are politically affiliated persons have submitted and collected the money by using forged bills generated from the vendors, it said.
The PIL also stated that in the financial years 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21 till August, a total amount of Rs. 62,105.60 Lakhs have been released in the BTC area out of which Rs. 47,648.98 Lakh for the payment of unskilled wage and Rs. 14,456.62 for the materials and as per the assessment of the payment of unskilled wage and Rs. 14,456.62 for the materials and as per the assessment, only 27,5% of the wage is reached to the job guarantee cardholders and only 22.1% of the material cost is utilized on the ground, hence, “the petitioners stated that by extrapolating the finding ratio it is found that only Rs. 16,312.06 Lakhs is utilized as per the target set up under MGNREGA and the remaining huge amount of Rs. 45,793.54 Lakhs is miss-utilized in the BTC area in the last two and a half years, it read.
The petitioners also stated thatbank staff of different banks such as State Bank of India etc are also involved in the fraudulent withdrawal of the MGNREGA wages. “The bank account holders are not even aware how much MGNREGA wages are deposited in their account and many of them had came to know about the deposit of money in their account when the Village Council Development Committee (VCDC) members visits their house for signature in some of the bank papers, the PIL stated.
