MADURAI: Acting sternly on the irregularity in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme, the district administration has ordered that the money allegedly swindled by the staff be recovered from them.
“We have given instructions that the taluk officials concerned recover `30 lakh siphoned off by the MGNREGA contract employees involved in the scam,” Collector L Subramanian told Express on Sunday.
The collector said the administration has filed a complaint seeking criminal action against the former employees, who were sacked on Saturday, after irregularities were found in implementing the scheme in Usilampatti.
“We have instructed all collectors to closely monitor the system and submit a detailed report on the scheme,” said a Rural development department official, adding that criminal action will be taken if any irregularities are found. The BDO of Usilampatti Taluk had sent details on 672 people employed at Erumarpatti and Mannur village to MGNREGA office in Chennai. But when these details were uploaded to the MGNREGA’s system server, it was inflated to show that as many as 1,200 were employed. This allegedly led to a loss of `30 lakh.