Eleven women sarpanchs figure in the list of the 48 accused in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) fund scam in Gujarat’s Dahod taluka. Authorities, however, pointed out that the real culprits could be their husbands running the show by proxy on these reserved seats.
Fatehsinh Pargi, a resident of Moti Shehra village in Fatehpura taluka, who brought the issue of non-payment of wages and manipulation of job cards and work muster rolls to light, said that most of the women sarpanchs hardly knew what was going on. “The women sarpanchs were just signatories while their husbands with the help of the local talatis embezzled funds and created false names for the muster rolls,” he said.
Talking to The Indian Express, Dahod District Development Officer, H N Thakkar said that all the 11 accused women sarpanchs were elected under provision for reservation of seats for women under the Gujarat Panchayat Act. “The women sarpanchs were the signatories in the work muster rolls just like their male counterparts, hence their names were included in the FIR,” added Thakkar.
Most women sarpanchs remained unavailable for comment even as fellow villagers revealed that it was their husbands who actually run the show, making their wives sign or place thumb impressions on documents.
Pargi and 156 other workers from Fatehpura Taluka filed a complaint with the DDO in June following which the officials lodged an enquiry into the issue. Thereafter, on August 12, a fresh police complaint was filed against 48 persons including a retired Taluka Development Officer and the present Taluka Development Officers, 20 talatis (lokayuktas) and 20 sarpanchs from the taluka.
On Thursday, a Dahod police team led by Sub-Inspector A M Rathwa of Fatehpura Police raided the houses of 17 accused persons. “We will not be able to give any kind of details on the raids or what we have seized at the moment because the investigations are on,” Rathwa said.
Incidentally, the Dahod District Administration had filed a police complaint on March 8, 2010 in Fatehpura Police Station after an expose by The Indian Express on non-payment of wages for over two years to 3,385 farmers under the NREGA.