Various beneficiaries of the village of Nongchram I under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) have alleged collusion of VEC officials of their village as well as that of the Dambo–Rongjeng C&RD Block under East Garo Hills district after what was supposed to benefit them went into the names of ghost beneficiaries that did not even exist.
The matter of the diversion of funds came to light after a complaint filed by villagers to Deputy Commissioner Swapnil Tembe, highlighting the extent of the corruption that they have suffered from due to the connivance of a few.
“There has been a diversion of funds from genuine beneficiaries to bogus ones. This has been going on for many years but has gone unnoticed. These irregularities have been brought to the notice of the concerned authorities but to no avail,” said the complaint by the villagers, which was submitted on Monday.
As per the complainants, an amount of Rs 52,000 in the first tranche was transferred to the bogus beneficiaries instead of the intended ones in the financial year 2019-20. They contended that at least 15-20 such cases took place in only their village.
The details of such anomalies were found after cross checking the PMAY – G and other related apps which showed that the persons who received the first installment, were not even on the list.
“The names of the beneficiaries in the list are either non-existent or dead. Even the names of the beneficiaries that figure on the list appear just as letters and even ‘unknown’ can be found in the name of beneficiaries. However the PMAY ids and work code that appear are the ones of the genuine beneficiaries,” they alleged.
Even more surprising was the fact that the family member names of the ghost beneficiaries matched the ones with the real beneficiaries.
The complainants added that with PMAY and MGNREGS being convergent schemes, signatures of beneficiaries are being taken in the name of wage payment under muster roll so that the money can be transferred to bogus accounts.
The complainants asserted that the anomalies could not have been a technical aberration and were done intentionally to serve the purpose of the vested interest persons.
The complainants have now sought a thorough investigation into the matter so that such anomalies and those behind the corruption can be taken to task.
