"Only 25 per cent of the NREGS funds have actually reached beneficiaries' "Rs.2,100 crore apparently siphoned off by the executing authorities' "Loot, plunder and pillage of the NREGS funds has been truly participatory' BHOPAL: A study carried out by the Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) has challenged the Madhya Pradesh Government's claim that under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) Rs.2891 crore out of a total allotment of Rs.3288 crore was spent to give 2753 lakh person-days of wage employment to 4,346,916 households in the State during 2007-08. Briefing media persons here, CEFS Director Parshuram Rai said that the study, based on a purposive sample survey, was carried out in December 2007-January 2008 in 125 poorest villages spread over five of the poorest districts -- Shivpuri, Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh, Dhar and Jhabua. According to the CEFS survey, during the first 10 months of 2007-08 (April 2007-January 2008), the sample households got only 10.61 days of average employment and just 2.36 per cent of the sample households were given 100 days of wage employment. The CEFS findings reveal that 65.39 per cent of the sample households did not receive even a single day of employment during the year. The study suggests that 16 days of average employment was given to the needy households during 2007-08. CEFS has contested the average employment figure of 63 days claimed by the State Government by pointing out that only about 25 per cent of the job figures given by the Government were actual figures while the remaining three-fourths of the job figures were based on fudged entries in job-cards and muster-rolls. "Only 25 per cent of the NREGS funds have actually reached the intended beneficiaries and the remaining 75 per cent have been siphoned off by the prevailing "Percentage Raj', it is alleged. Mr. Rai charged that out of a total amount of Rs.2891 crore spent on NREGS during 2007-08, about Rs.2,100 crore had apparently been siphoned off and misappropriated by the executing authorities. He went on to allege that the "loot, plunder and pillage of the NREGS funds in Madhya Pradesh has been truly participatory. This participatory loot is very well organised and institutionalized', he added. "We were told by many Sarpanches, Panchayat Secretaries and local activists that the NREGS projects are sanctioned and funds released by the concerned authorities only after they receive a certain percentage of money from the project funds in advance. Unless a Sarpanch or Panchayat Secretary was able to make advance payments of percentage money to various senior officials, the NREGS funds were not released,' Mr. Rai said. Mr. Rai alleged there were several ghost NREGS projects. Innumerable tree plantation projects executed under NREGS were without a single surviving sapling or plant. Hundreds of miles of tree-guards on either side of roads were without a single plant or sapling. There were job entries and project entries on job cards without any project executed in the villages. Many existing roads, ponds and tanks had been shown as fresh NREGS projects with just nominal earth work or minor modifications.