Numerous discrepancies were uncovered in the issuance of MNREGA job cards under Demdema C&RD Block during the door-to-door verification, the Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organisations (CoMSO) said today.
Leaders of CoMSO from Garo Hills, general secretary Balkarin Ch. Marak and publicity secretary Tony Tojrang B. Marak, and the Garo State Movement Committee had joined officials for the verification drive that commenced yesterday instituted by the State Rural Employment Society (SRES).
Marak said that the drive conducted revealed systematic malpractices and alarming instances were noted where single households were found to possess five to seven job cards, registered in the names of various family members, despite the scheme’s provision for one card per family.
Moreover, several job cards were issued without the mandatory approval or oversight from the Block Development Officer (BDO), thereby violating protocol, he added.
It was also revealed that minors were also registered as job card holders and single individuals were being listed multiple times under different job cards, an action clearly intended to inflate job demand and wage claims, Marak said.
Reiterating that all financial disbursements under MGNREGS for the fiscal year 2024–2025 should be stopped until thorough verification is completed, Marak said only those beneficiaries whose credentials are duly verified and authenticated should be eligible to receive pending wages.
“The scale of anomalies discovered points not to mere oversight, but to a colossal scam of multi-crore magnitude that has persisted under Demdema Block from 2019 to 2025. This fraudulent manipulation of public welfare schemes is a betrayal of the people’s trust and a misappropriation of public funds meant for genuine rural development,” he said.
In Charbatapara village, records indicate that the number of job card holders soared from 949 in the 2022–2023 to a staggering 1,991 in 2024–2025. “Such unnatural proliferation suggests a calculated propaganda to siphon off government resources through fake or duplicate registrations,” he added.
CoMSO has demanded authorities to initiate an immediate audit and bring to justice all those involved in corruption to preserve the integrity of public welfare schemes through stringent monitoring and legal action against all perpetrators.
It may be mentioned that the SRES has scheduled a two phase door-to-door verification drive of all job card holders across all Village Employment Councils (VECs) under the block after COMSO complaint against an unprecedented increase in job cards issued between 2020 and 2025, including large-scale embezzlement of public funds under the MGNREGA scheme.
The verification drive are being conducted by the Additional Programme Officer (APO), Assistant APO, Data Entry Operator (DEO), local law enforcement, Village Employment Council (VEC) President and Secretary, as well as multiple grassroots organisations.
