Right to Information (RTI) activist and whistleblower Agnes Kharshiing has called on the Block Development Officer (BDO) of Mylliem, PT Passah, to register an FIR into the poor implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) projects in Umlyngka, irregularities of which have been exposed through RTIs.
The Umlyngka MGNREGS implementation controversy deepened yesterday after the Chairman of the Village Employment Council (VEC), Stephan Lyngdoh, gathered together job card holders and condemned a local resident, Doria Shabong, for seeking an RTI. At the meeting Lyngdoh had said that he and the other office bearers of the VEC were unhappy that a lone woman had filed an RTI which led to the stoppage of the scheme in the village.
Kharshiing told Highland Post that “It is the BDO who should register an FIR as much of the funds meant for development have been corrupted away while the poor are not getting job cards, the Chairman and his family and also the family of the Secretary are getting plenty of job cards, which can be seen in the muster roll of the Umlyngka VEC.”
She said that if no action is taken, many other VECs will feel empowered to misappropriate the funds of the public and development will be at a loss.
In the meeting yesterday, to which the media were called, the VEC Chairman denounced Shabong for seeking an RTI and stopping the MGNREGS works. He directly pinned the blame on her RTI efforts for the reason for the MGNREGS projects being halted and thus reducing the income of those in the village who depend on the wages provided by the scheme.
Under MGNREGS, poor rural residents are provided with 100 days of work but because of the stoppage, Lyngdoh said that Umlyngka residents will only get up to 50 days’ labour. The Chairman also said that any person or organisation that wants to file an RTI should first seek permission from the village authorities.
This comment, which was broadcast by local news channels, saw online retorts by members of the public who questioned why the VEC should be afraid of an RTI if nothing was wrong.
The Umlyngka case has become a byword in controversy as the documents received through RTIs reveal different types of modus operandi in siphoning off funds, such as diverting schemes meant for one place to another, leaving work unfinished but sanctioning payment and claiming that 100 days’ wages were paid from 2017 onwards when the RTI findings show a lack of money being transferred to job card holders; if each job card holder was paid for 100 days work, then they should have each received Rs 18,100 but the money transfers do not confirm this.
A state inquiry had confirmed most of the findings of the RTI and it was this inquiry that recommended halting new projects until the unfinished ones are completed.
There are many conflicts of interest in the Umlyngka case. For example, the RTI documents reveal that the VEC Chairman is the Rangbah Shnong (headman), is also the vendor for the materials and his family members are on the muster roll.
Another conflict of interest is the fact that the local inquiry undertaken was done by the VEC and the BDO, the very same people who presided over the malfunctioning MGNREGS projects. Shabong has been consistently asking for an independent inquiry into the Umlyngka case and has written multiple letters to the Chief Secretary, the Commissioner of Community and Rural Development and, lately, to Governor Satya Pal Malik, who has promised to take it up.
