In yet another example of poor governance in West Bengal, in Bengal’s Murshidabad district, a part of rupees 7 lakh collected under Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) was sent to people in Bangladesh. An FIR has been lodged against local TMC leader Samsul Arfin by the district administration for making fake job cards for his relatives of which 13 are Bangladeshi citizens.
Samsul Arfin is the upa-pradhan (deputy head) of the Trinamool Congress-run Gurapashla gram panchayat in the Nabagram area. The former block development officer (BDO) of Nabagram had lodged a police complaint after completing an internal probe, against which an FIR was registered in December 2019. However, there has been no progress in the police probe although Calcutta High court rejected the petition moved by Arfin for anticipatory bail. Pankaj Das, the present BDO of Nabagram, said, “After joining duty, I got to know that the former BDO completed the internal probe and lodged an FIR against the accused at Nabagram PS under Sections 486,406,409,420 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
Nabagram block Congress president Mir Badam Ali said, “Arfin, a TMC leader, embezzled government funds and helped Bangladeshi nationals make money out of a Central government project.” Muslims comprise 66.28 % of Murshidabad’s population, making it the highest among all districts in Bengal. The district shares its eastern border with Bangladesh.
