Karnataka MGNREGA Payment: In Karnataka’s Yadgir district, men posed as women and uploaded fake attendance photos to fraudulently claim MGNREGA benefits worth Rs 3 lakh. The scam prompted local outrage.
Several men dressed in sarees covered their heads and posed as women to defraud a government scheme and claim benefits worth Rs 3 lakh.
The incident happened in Karnataka’s Yadgir district, where men got themselves clicked posing as women, and these photos were later uploaded to the National Mobile Monitoring Service (NMMS) – an attendance logging system, to falsely portray that women workers were participating in the scheme.
According to the details, these pictures were clicked and uploaded in February this year.
The scam not only defrauded the government scheme but also left women, desperately looking out for jobs, without work.
As the scam came to light, locals of the district demanded strict action against the authorities.
Meanwhile, the local panchayat blamed some outsourced workers for the scam and alleged that no officers were involved.
“I have no role in this case. An outsourced employee did this, I was unaware of the entire scam. When it came to my notice, I suspended the employee. Now, MGNREGA work is going seamlessly in the village. We have given work to 2,500 workers,” Chennabasava, Panchayat Development Officer of the Malhar village said.
Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj claimed that it had taken initiatives in March, to provide jobs for 100 days in a year under the MGNREGA scheme.