A resident of Lama village in East Jaintia Hills has accused the Dorbar Shnong of ostracising her for exposing corruption in the implementation of various rural employment guarantee scheme (MGNREGS) activities in the village.
Addressing the media today, Thrina Suchen said that Dorbar Shnong ostracised her for filing an RTI related to the MGNREGS schemes where it was found that there was a misuse of funds to the tune of several lakh rupees.
Informing that the Dorbar had barred villagers from buying items from her shop and from entering her house, besides imposing other restrictions, Suchen informed that the RTI filed with the Block Development Officer in Khliehriat in 2019 also revealed that, from a total of 85 households in the village, there are 164 job cardholders.
“This is the reason I want to clarify about all these findings in the Dorbar Shnong so that all the residents know about it, but the headman never paid heed to this request of mine. Then I approached the Deputy Commissioner, who in September 2021 issued a written order to Tellme Dong, the headman of Lama, that what the Dorbar Shnong did to me was illegal and the DC give a direction to conduct a Dorbar meeting but the headman still pays no heed to date and keep denying everything,” she alleged.
She also claimed that the secretary of the village body also tried to bribe her with Rs 50,000 and also offered her schemes to do away with the RTI but she turned down the offer. Suchen has shot off another letter on October 18 to the DC complaining about the headman’s refusal to obey the DC’s order to convene the Dorbar Shnong.