But the truth is that the loot in MNREGA is a known fact and the state government had repeatedly been informed about it by different people and agencies in the last four-five years. The CESF report helped understand the extent of the alleged scam––Rs 6,000 crore, that is, six times more than the Rs 950 crore fodder scam of 1990s.

Noted RTI activist of Bihar, Shiv Prakash Rai, has through RTI procured a list of 91 people, who wrote letters to the Union ministry of rural development pointing out large scale loot and bungling in the implementation of MNREGA in Bihar. The ministry kept directing the letters to the Bihar government. Incidentally, some of those who wrote letter are none else but the leaders of the NDA itself, which shows how indifferent the state government had all these years been on the issue. About 20 of these 91, who wrote letters, are prominent people, such as MPs, MLAs and leaders of various parties.

Those who wrote letters highlighting corruption include the name of AICC general secretary, Digvijay Singh, who on August 24, 2007 wrote to the rural development ministry pointing out corruption in Munger district. He sent more han 10 reminders in this regard.

LJP leaders Ram Vilas Paswan, Janata Dal (United) MP, Captain Jai Narayan Nishad, Kirti Azad and Rama Devi (both BJP MPs), Shyam Rajak, (in 2008 when he was in RJD), Sitaram Yadav, (the then MP) on Feb 18, 2009, Independent MP of Siwan, O P Yadav, former Bihar minister, Mahavir Prasad, senior Congress leader and former Union minister, Dr Shakeel Ahmed, CPI leader, Basudev Acharya, Nawal Kishore Shahi and Renu Devi are some of those who also drew the attention towards embezzlement in MNREGA fund.

Not only that 1,435 complaints of the rural development department, mostly related to Indira Awas Yojana and MNREGA were put before Chief Minister’s Janata Darbar.

Besides, in various Yatras the chief minister received many such complaints of irregularities in MNREGA, which he conceded a couple of days back.

The MNREGA scam has put a question mark before the tall claims of the state government and various agencies. While an NGO claimed that Bihar had witnessed 26 per cent fall in migration due to MNREGA, the state government puts the figure at 40 per cent. But if 73 per cent beneficiaries are not getting money and the fund is being siphoned off how can it be said that MNREGA helped bring down the migration of labour.