Government has received over 1400 complaints relating to misappropriation and diversion of funds and corruption in the implementation of the ambitious Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act from across the country.

Ministry of Rural Development, the nodal agency responsible for implementing the scheme, has received the complaints from different parts of the country.

“The Ministry has received a total of 1464 complaints regarding irregularities in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA….,” Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain Aditya said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.

The ministry has so far received 371 complaints regarding mis-approriation of funds and six cases of diversion of funds of MNREGA, he said.

To a question whether the government has detected any corruption and subsequent leakage of funds in the payment of wage to NREGA workers, Minister said, “the Ministry has received 180 complaints relating to corruption in the implementation of MGNREGA and 39 complaints regarding leakage of funds through bank and post office accounts.”

When asked about the reason behind the delay in payment of wages, he said that payment of wages to NREGA workers has been getting delayed due to lack of bank and post office services in remote areas since the provision for the payment was made mandatory through their accounts in them.

“At the time of launch of MNREGA, payment of wages to workers was to be made in cash. However, vide a notification dated 19/02/2009, payment of wages has been made mandatory through worker’s accounts in banks or post offices,” he said.

The minister said that all complaints received relating to the implementation of MNREGA are forwarded to the states concerned for taking “appropriate action” as the implementation of the Act is done by them in accordance with the employment guarantee schemes formulated by them as per the provisions of the Act.