Madhya Pradesh has set in motion a process to cancel the NREGA job cards given to elected representatives, including MPs and MLAs, in the wake of an allegation that wages were paid to Union Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Arun Yadav and his family members in Borawa village of Khargone district.

Yadav, who represents Khandwa in the Lok Sabha, had taken up the matter with the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh and also Union Rural Development Minister C P Joshi.

The state government said wages were never paid to the minister or his relatives, maintaining that there was no irregularity in the scheme’s implementation. A newspaper had carried a report saying wages were paid to Yadav and his family members in 2008.

Collector Khargone Kedar Sharma, who inquired into the matter, told The Indian Express that the details mentioned in the report were not found on the scheme’s website. Money was neither procured nor wages paid, he said. “Someone seems to have hacked the website by first inserting the details and then removing them,” he claimed.

The newspaper had submitted a copy of the printout taken on October 11 that had details of wages paid to the minister and his relatives.

Sharma said an FIR was being lodged against unknown persons for allegedly hacking the website. Simultaneously, the collector has also sacked a data manager and a data entry operator attached to Kasarawad Janpad Panchayat.

State Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Gopal Bhargava said all collectors had been asked to cancel job cards given to prominent persons and elected representatives. While job cards of elected representatives would be immediately cancelled, the cards of other prominent persons would be cancelled in consultation with the in-charge ministers.

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