In order to check corruption in the prestigious rural job scheme, NREGS, the Andhra Pradesh government would soon make a law to expeditiously punish those found guilty.
"We want to bring in a law to take tough action against the corrupt. We will issue an ordinance soon for the purpose. Presently, the process of punishing the guilty is slow," state Rural Development Minister D Manikya Vara Prasad told PTI here.
"For example, if we have to punish a field assistant, we will issue a notice. He will go to court. Similarly, we have to write to the Panchayat Raj department for punishing some other officials.It leads to delay. In the meantime, the guilty continues to work there. We felt the need to expedite the process," he said.
The Ordinance, Andhra Pradesh Social Audit (Punishment of Corrupt Practices) Ordinance 2011, is likely to be issued in about two weeks.
The corrupt persons and those indulging in irregularities would be noticed during Social Audit of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and the proposed law provides for arresting the accused, he said.
"We will start mobile courts to try the cases of corruption and punish the guilty at the earliest," he said.
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One mobile court will be set up per district or a group of districts and it will have First Class Judicial Magistrate.The mobile courts would go to the villages to try the cases.
The minimum quantum of punishment under the proposed law would be two months imprisonment, while the maximum would go up to two years.
The government has prepared the draft Ordinance in consultation with legal experts, the Advocate General and the views of other experts are also being taken, he said.
Asked about the present level of corruption in NREGS in Andhra Pradesh, he said allegations of corruption to the tune of Rs 100 crore have come to light in the last five years and Rs 30 crore has been recovered.
In another initiative aimed at benefiting SCs and STs, the state government would soon launch a programme to provide irrigation facility to the lands distributed to those sections.
Under the programme, named Indira Jala Prabha, one lakh bores would be set up to irrigate 10 lakh acres acres of land which have been distributed to SCs and STs, the minister said.
The programme would be launched next month and will be completed in about two years, he said.
The project would be implemented at a cost of Rs 1600 crore. Of this, Rs 800 crore would be provided by NABARD, while the remaining would be spent under