Guwahati: Assam's panchayat and rural development department, suspecting a "massive scam" under the rural job scheme during the erstwhile Congress rule, has moved chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal for a probe.

A source in the department said on Wednesday, "Nearly four lakh job cards were found to be issued against fictitious names or more than one card was found to be issued against one family under the MGNREGS between 2008 and 2016 during a field verification conducted in the past year. The number of such fake cards may go up as 93 per cent of the total 42 lakh job cards in the state have been checked so far and seven per cent verification is pending."

He added, "So, we have requested the chief minister to order a thorough inquiry either by the criminal investigation department or the anti-corruption branch."

The BJP government came to power in May 2016.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) guarantees jobs for hundred days in a year against a job card issued to a family, failing which the cardholder can claim compensation.

The department suspects that a huge amount of money was released against the fake job cards. "It is suspected that the money released against the fake job cards was divided by corrupt officials among themselves. Only an investigation will reveal the involvement of government officials in the scam. Although job cards should be updated as per MGNREGA norms, clearly stating the number of jobs provided to the card holders, surprisingly the bogus cards were not updated," the source said.

The matter was discussed during a Sonowal-chaired review meeting of the department's schemes on February 6.

The bogus cards have been cancelled, the source said.

An official in the department said all job cards would be replaced with new ones to check such corrupt practices. "All deputy commissioners have been instructed to print new job cards," he added.

Raid: The vigilance and anti-corruption branch of Assam police on Wednesday searched four properties of divisional forest officer Aftabuddin Ahmed and his wife in a case of properties disproportionate to his income. The properties include two houses at Sundarpur and Six Mile, a flat at Spanish Garden apartment in front of Assam state zoo and the Ashiana girls' hostel at Japorigog in Guwahati.