Bhopal: Serious irregularities like non-submission of utilisation certificates and delay in payment of wages to beneficiaries among others have come to notice in an official report on the implementation of MGNREGA scheme in Madhya Pradesh.
It was also found that the state government was not following necessary budgetary procedures while seeking grant from the Centre under the flagship programme. It was noticed during the inspection in eight districts that the ratio of expenditures for labour and materials have not been followed and more than 40 per cent of the amount of Rs 19.5 crore has been spent on purchasing, the report by Accountant General (AG) office said.
As per guidelines, a ratio of 60:40 has to be followed while spending money on labour and material under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act Scheme. From 2010 till March 2012, the State Government had spent about Rs 162 crore on purchase of material for the implementation of the scheme, it said....
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03:15 PM, May 19, 2013
Mumbai: The Congress party is debating holding a General Election in November, six months ahead of schedule, senior party leaders said, reflecting an internal discussion over whether to pull the plug on the shaky ruling coalition or have it serve a full term. Officially, the Congress party says the government - which has been battered by a series of corruption scandals and now governs as a minority after two allies...
11:45 AM, May 19, 2013
New Delhi: Senior CBI officer Vivek Dutt, who headed the Coalgate scam probe team, and three others were on Saturday sent to three days in the agency's custody by a Delhi court for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 15 lakh from a businessman to favour him in a land dispute case. Superintendent Dutt, CBI inspector Rajesh Chandra Karnatak, alleged middleman Rajesh Pachisia and businessman Dinesh Chand Gupta were produced...
06:25 PM, May 18, 2013
Ghaziabad: A team of government officials, including two policemen, were brutally assaulted on Thursday by henchmen of a sand mafia in Uttar Pradesh, police said. They even tried to run them over with a tractor. The incident took place at Shamli, over 100 km from New Delhi, when a team of revenue officials and policemen went to question a sand mafia for alleged illegal mining of sand near the banks...
07:12 PM, May 16, 2013
Nagpur: Police have booked Maharashtra's Director General of Police Sanjeev Dayal and senior officials of the government under a special Act following a complaint lodged against them by a top prison official for allegedly delaying his promotion. The officials were booked on Tuesday under the provisions of Prevention of Atrocities Act against Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, police said on Wednesday. Deputy Inspector General of Prisons (Eastern Region), Shashikant Shinde,...
09:30 PM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: Rajasthan BJP leader Gulab Chand Kataria may have been chargesheeted by the CBI in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case. But, as the BJP alleged, is Gujarat CM Narendra Modi the real target of the CBI? The CBI's move to chargesheet Kataria brought out the entire BJP brass against the CBI on Wednesday, with BJP president Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and even Kataria-baiter Vasundhara Raje putting up a strong...
08:13 PM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: The Congress has targetted Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan after CNN-IBN exposed how prime land in Bhopal was given to his relatives and party members. Digvijaya Singh claimed this is one of the many corruption charges against the Madhya Pradesh CM. "About 10 people in Chouhan's family were given membership and land. There is a provision that two members of a family cannot be given a...
09:40 AM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday landed in a controversy for her comments that a man had offered her money to get a ticket for assembly polls with BJP slamming her for not taking action against the person and terming the incident as reflection of "Congress culture". "It is an open secret that tickets are sold in Congress party. But this is the first time that a Chief...
10:20 PM, May 14, 2013
Islamabad: A day after his resounding defeat in Pakistan's general election, former premier Raja Pervez Ashraf was on Monday barred from leaving the country over allegations of corruption in setting up power projects. The Federal Investigation Agency directed authorities in airports to prevent Ashraf and several others accused of wrongdoing in the rental power projects scam from leaving Pakistan. Earlier, the National Accountability Bureau Pakistan's main anti-corruption agency had decided...
12:16 AM, May 14, 2013
It is obvious to any dispassionate observer of Indian politics that PM Manmohan Singh has failed to keep his flock of ministers in check. From CWG to 2G, from coal block allocation scam to malpractices in the Railways, UPA-2 has been in the news more for the wrong reasons. In such a situation, is demand for his resignation justified? Ashutosh, managing editor, IBN7 joined IBNLive readers for an interaction on...
06:39 PM, May 13, 2013
New Delhi: Over 6,400 railway employees are facing departmental proceedings for being allegedly involved in corruption during 2012. Departmental proceedings were initiated against 6,454 employees, including 195 gazetted officials, working in different zones and allied departments of the Railways between January and December 2013 for alleged corruption, according to a latest data. Of the total of defaulting officials, a highest of 1,637 were working in Northern Railway zone, 698 under...
05:10 PM, May 13, 2013
Chandigarh: Former IPS officer and social activist Kiran Bedi on Saturday alleged the growing interference of the Union government in the functioning of the CBI had turned the premier investigating agency into a "caged parrot". The Central government was also not enacting strong laws to enable the CBI function like an independent body, she told reporters in Chandigarh. "The CBI has turned into a caged parrot owing to growing interference...
02:52 AM, May 12, 2013
New Delhi: Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar were not the first from in the United Progressive Alliance-II to have resigned on corruption charges. The others who stepped down on corruption charges are: A Raja - The DMK leader held the portfolio of communication and information technology when an alleged scam in allocation of 2G spectrum took place. A report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)...
04:40 AM, May 11, 2013
New Delhi: The net is now closing in on Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal. His exit now looks highly likely as more reports about business links of his family and aides come out. In another revelation, a Chartered Accountant with links to companies owned by Pawan Bansal's wife and sons was appointed a director in the Canara Bank when Bansal was MoS Finance. Canara Bank gave loans worth crores to...
11:36 AM, May 10, 2013
Already in the docks over the CWG, 2G and chopper deals, the UPA has now been hit by two more scams, one in the Railways and one over coal block allocations. The Supreme Court has also come down on the functioning of the government and its bureaucracy. In such a situation with the general elections drawing closer, can the UPA ignore the clamour for Ashwani Kumar and Pawan Bansal's removal?...
06:46 PM, May 09, 2013
Nashik: Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday recovered cash worth Rs 57,69,000 and over 9 kg of gold from two bank lockers of Swati Chikhlikar, wife of suspended PWD executive engineer (Nashik north) Satish Chikhlikar, besides 5 kg of silver from another locker in her name. The seizure is collectively estimated over Rs 3,27,29,000, according to a senior ACB officer. "ACB seized cash of Rs 57,69,000, 9.558 kg of gold, including...
04:51 PM, May 09, 2013
Captain G R Gopinath joined IBNLive readers for an interaction on the Karnataka Assembly poll results. Q. Do the results reinstate the Katju belief of 90%?! If not, what do the results actually say of the voter psyche in K'nataka? (Not expecting a politically correct answer; Rather an honest one.) Asked by: Dushyant Singh Karnawat A. It is more a vote against BJP than in favour of Congress. It is...
05:58 PM, May 08, 2013
New Delhi: The Congress was set for a resounding election victory in Karnataka on Wednesday, early results showed, a rare win the party hopes will put the wind in its sails ahead of general elections. Election commission results showed the centre-left Congress leading in 113 of 223 seats after Sunday's vote, ousting the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after five years of rule marred by scandal. Final results were...
02:15 PM, May 08, 2013
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday hinted of impending trouble in form of arrests of former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ministers in the state by categorically asserting that law would be allowed to take its own free course in graft matters. Talking to reporters after a cabinet meeting, Akhilesh said that in the near future, probes could be initiated against some other BSP ministers too. The state...
11:10 PM, May 07, 2013
The Indian Railways was always famous for having a well-oiled commission-based procurement system, an institutionalised form of corruption. Now close kins of the Railway minister have been found to be involved in rackets ranging from choosing candidates for Railway top jobs to decisions on purchase orders. How far and deep does the rot run? Senior journalist Vivian Fernandes joined IBNLive readers for an interaction on the issue. Q. Why is...
06:54 PM, May 07, 2013
