Panchayati Raj minister Prafulla Samal at a news conference in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, April 16: With the Centre set to initiate a CBI probe into the alleged corruption and irregularities in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the state government today came out with an official statement that it would welcome the inquiry by the central investigating agency.

Talking to reporters, Panchayati Raj minister Prafulla Samal said, “The state government has no objection to a CBI inquiry. We always want transparency.”

Admitting that few irregularities have been made in implementing the MGNREGS, Samal said several steps had been taken to check the irregularities in the scheme. “ In all, 771 number of officials and non-officials have been proceeded against and Rs 17.03 lakh have also been recovered so far from government and non-government functionaries,” he said.

The state vigilance has conducted inquiries, surprise checks and registered 111 cases involving 239 officials and non-officials of different categories, he added.

However, the minister said the state government would not go against the Centre for Environment and Food Securities (CEFS), the NGO which had brought various irregularities during implementation of various welfare schemes including the MGNREGS. Without mentioning the CEFS’s name, Samal said many NGOs were trying to sale the poverty of Orissa.

To ensure transparency in the implementation of MGNREGS, Samal said all the wage payments were now being made only through the bank or post office accounts of concerned job seekers, “So far, 39.88 lakh bank accounts and 12.75 lakh post office accounts have been opened,” he said.

In order to strengthen the implementing machineries, Samal said, 10,211 posts at the field level have been created and many more posts would be created at various level. “ Orissa is the first state in the country to maintain update management information system (MIS) in the online module of MGNREGS. State government has framed rules for redressal of public grievances relating to implemenation of MGNREGS.

Under the programme, 60,00,291 families have been issued job cards. During 2010-11, 19.89 lakh households have been provided employment till March 2011 creating 956.17 lakh person days for an average 48 days of employment to each household. More than 1.95 lakh households have been provided 100 days of employment during the said year. The state has already been able to spend Rs 1480 crore by end of March 2011, the minister informed.

Senior officials including Panchayati Raj secretary S.N. Tripathy, director of Panchayati Raj, director of information and public relations Baishnab Prasad Mohanty were present at the press meet.