Jajpur: BJD leaders appear to be using the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, originally launched by the Congress-led UPA government to provide jobs to the rural poor, for their own benefit.

Binjharpur MLA and president of the Biju Mahila Janata Dal, the BJD's women wing, Pramila Mallik's father and brothers have job cards issued under the scheme. And they have received money as wages for daily labourers under the central scheme as well.

It has been revealed that job cards under the scheme have been issued in name of Mallik's father Paban Mallik and her two brothers - Khirod Mallik and Keshab Mallik. They have reportedly worked as the daily labourers under the scheme.

According to information available from the rural job scheme website, job cards have been issued in the names of Paban, Khirod and Keshab.

The information uploaded on the website shows that Keshab had received wages as labourer in 2016 and 2018 under the Mo Pokhari project.

The government record also shows that Binjharpur block chairman Nanda Kishore Samal was also the beneficiary under the rural job scheme. According to the report, he had lifted soil under the Mo Pokhari project as a daily labourer for six days from a pond owned by one Binjharpur resident, Umesh Sahoo. Even a job card under the scheme has been issued in the name of a former executive engineer of Nesco, former president of Kharasrota College and his wife - who were the lecturers in a government college.

The Jajpur District Rural Development Agency launched an inquiry into allegations that the Binjharpur MLA's father and brothers were issued job cards under the rural job scheme after the matter had been brought to its notice.

"I have asked the central scheme's additional project director cell to ascertain when they were registered as rural job beneficiaries under the scheme, their job card numbers and how much money was paid to them in their job accounts as wages," said the agency's Jajpur project director Braja Gopal Acharya, adding that action would be taken if inquiry found them as fraudulent beneficiaries.

When contacted, the MLA said how her father, who was above 90 years of age, could be a worker and beneficiary under the scheme. Mallik said she was not aware of her brothers being workers under the scheme. "If they are, they would take appropriate legal recourse," she said.