(MENAFN- IANS) Chandigarh, Nov 28 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party Scheduled Caste Morcha Punjab vice-president Paramjit Singh Kainth on Friday welcomed Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's decision to order a high-level probe into alleged misuse of MGNREGA funds in Punjab.

Kainth said over the past few years, several MGNREGA scams have surfaced in Punjab, involving the misuse of funds through various irregularities that would not have been possible without the connivance of representatives of political parties.

Kainth claimed that for the past 10 years, corruption in the state's Rural Development and Panchayat Departments -- often carried out by gram panchayats in collusion with officials and employees -- has hindered employment opportunities for poor families. These include creating fake job cards and collusion with contractors, creating fake payment receipts, and listing ineligible or deceased persons as beneficiaries, depriving needy MGNREGA workers of their entitlements.

He said scams worth crores of rupees involving MGNREGA workers have been exposed in Punjab, but no action has been taken against them. "The Bhagwant Mann government claims zero tolerance for corruption, which is rarely seen on the ground, but no action has been taken against these scams worth crores of rupees in recent years," he said.

The BJP leader said that in 2017, a local court dismissed police closure reports for a Rs 5-crore scam in the Samana and Patran blocks of Patiala. He said in 2019, five officials were fired in Gidderbaha and Ferozepur over a fraudulent payment scam of Rs 2.59 crore, but neither central funds were recovered nor has the police taken any action in the MGNREGA scam.

Union Minister Chouhan, during a visit to Jalandhar on Thursday, announced that the Centre would investigate irregularities in MGNREGA implementation in Punjab, including complaints about fake job cards and contractor involvement, and ensure that funds reach genuine beneficiaries.

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