Pre-recorded video used to fake attendance at Madurai MGNREGS worksite

Madurai: Residents of Coimbatore who never reported for a government rural employment project in Madurai allegedly received wages after officials bypassed a GPS-linked attendance system using pre-recorded mobile phone videos.The alleged fraud surfaced at Meikkilarpatti panchayat in Usilampatti block after social activist M Gnanasekaran lodged a complaint with the Madurai collector. The complaint relates to a large-scale tree plantation project near Sikkampatti Main Road and the widening of the Manai Odai Minor Canal, covered under four muster rolls.The National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS), introduced to prevent fake muster rolls under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), requires attendance verification through e-KYC face authentication, worker photographs and GPS-tagged records.According to government sources, videos of registered workers staying in Coimbatore, Pollachi and other places were recorded in advance. At the worksite, one person allegedly played the videos on a mobile phone while another captured the screen through the NMMS app to mark attendance. The alleged manipulation came to light after the NMMS images reportedly showed the edges of the phone displaying the video and the hand holding it.In a reply dated May 27, the Usilampatti Block Development Officer (BDO) said discrepancies were found in four muster rolls due to the introduction of e-KYC face authentication from February and technical issues on the platform. The BDO estimated the loss at Rs17,880.The reply stated that wages under three muster rolls had already been credited to beneficiaries’ bank accounts, while payments under the fourth muster roll were withheld. The assessed amount has since been remitted to the government account.“Three worksite supervisors were removed, and the MGNREGS coordinator and panchayat secretary were transferred,” the BDO said.Gnanasekaran, however, alleged that the official response had reduced a Rs19-lakh fraud to a Rs17,880 technical error. “Action against three worksite supervisors and transfers of two officials were eyewash,” he said. He urged the government to seize mobile phones, NMMS records, bank transactions, and muster rolls to identify those who created, approved, and received the payments.He has sought a probe by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) or the CB-CID, claiming that similar complaints from across Madurai district point to a wider pattern of irregularities in MGNREGS attendance records. A senior panchayat raj and rural development department official said the allegations would be examined.