UNMESH GUJARATHI
Sprouts Brand Story

The Special Investigation Team of Sprouts, through documents, has unearthed a multi-crore rupees scam in distribution of saplings under the Maharashtra Government’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGS) Scheme in the state.

The Maharashtra Government buys saplings from nurseries and distributes them free of cost to needy farmers every year. The state government spends crores of rupees for this work under the MGNREGS.

However in Partur and Ghansawangi in Jalna District, the crores of rupees were claimed through the fictitious bills by officials of agriculture department although no saplings were bought and distributed to the farmers, the Sprouts SIT has learnt through reliable sources.

Agriculture Officer Ram Rodge working in Jalna taluka is stated to be a kingpin of this scam. But since he has “money relations” with Health Minister Rajesh Tope’s personal secretary Narayan Gawande, the scam is being shielded.

Abhay Kalunke, the owner of the nursery, whose fake bills were submitted by Rodge to claim the reimbursement, had complained to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and other officers about this clandestine affair. But no action was taken against the guilty, Social worker advocate Dilip Inkar told Sprouts.

Modus Operandi

MGNREGS officers claimed disbursement of Rs 50 crore towards the saplings claiming to be purchased and for distribution among needy farmers from Jalna district. For this fake nursery bills were printed and submitted to the state Government. The distribution of saplings was shown on paper. But in reality no saplings were actually distributed.