Chandigarh, November 28: Bharatiya Janata Party Scheduled Caste Morcha Punjab Vice President Paramjit Singh Kainth has welcomed the decision by Union Agriculture Minister and former Chief Minister Shivraj Patil to conduct a high-level investigation into various alleged irregularities in Punjab related to the misuse and fraud of funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Over the past few years, several MNREGA 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.

BJP leader Kainth said that for the past 10 years, corruption scams have been rife in Punjab's Rural Development and Panchayat departments, often perpetrated by Gram Panchayats in collusion with officials and employees. This has led to serious problems in providing employment to workers from poor families. These include creating fake job cards and collusion with contractors, creating fake payment receipts, and listing ineligible or deceased beneficiaries as beneficiaries, depriving needy MGNREGA workers of their entitlements. Scams worth crores of rupees involving MGNREGA workers have been exposed in Punjab, but no action has been taken against them. Bhagwant Mann's 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.

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. In 2019, five officials were fired in Gidderbaha and Ferozepur over a fraudulent payment scam of ₹2.59 crore, but the central funds have not yet been recovered, nor has the police taken any action in the MGNREGA scam. Morcha Vice-President Paramjit Kainth said a delegation will meet Central Minister Shivraj Patil to highlight the irregularities faced by MGNREGA workers in Punjab and submit a letter detailing the irregularities.