Conduct audit of rural job scheme, High Court tells Tripura

Rejecting the demand for a CBI probe, the Tripura High Court has directed the government to conduct an audit in all 58 blocks of the state vis-a-vis MGNREGA scheme to ensure transparency, an official said on Friday.

The court direction came on a petition filed by former Congress spokesman and eminent physician Ashok Sinha, renowned lawyer Ashish Nandi and Trinamool Congress leader Arun Chandra Bhowmik, who sought a CBI probe into alleged irrigularities in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Tripura.

Rejecting the demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe, a division bench of Chief Justice T. Vaiphei and Justice Subhashish Talapatra on Thursday asked the government to get conducted the audit by renowned chartered accountants in 58 blocks, a Rural Development Department official said.

The High Court directed the Tripura government to engage the chartered accountants within two months to audit all accounts pertaining to MGNREGA scheme as well as the State Employment Guarantee Fund.

The court said the audit reports should be submitted to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and the Centre by the state government.

The court also asked the Tripura government to place in the assembly the audited accounts and statements of expenditure prepared by the chartered accountants.

"Once the audited accounts are laid in the state assemble the same should also be made available as a public document on the MGNREGA website."

Tripura retained the top position in the courtry for the seventh consecutive year till the fiscal that ended in April 2016 in providing jobs under the MGNREGA. A record 94.46 person days per household of work was provided in 2015-16, against the national average of 48.51 days.

--IANS

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