* MGNREGS Commissioner appeals to people not to fall prey to such
unverified offers, advise duped youths to lodge police complaints
By Kartik Lokhande
A
few months ago, it was Kisan Call Centres. Now, it is Customer Service
Centres under Swarna Jayanti Swarozgar Yojana. The fraudsters operating
from Delhi and nearby areas like Ghaziabad, Noida, Gurgaon are targeting
unemployed youths by offering them ‘Government jobs’.
In the latest
case, some unemployed youths from Nagpur have been offered jobs of
Customer Service Representatives under Swarna Jayanti Swarozgar Yojana.
The appointment letters received by some of the youths from the city
bear the Government emblem as well as logo of Mahatma Gandhi National
Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), and image of ‘Father of the
Nation’ Mahatma Gandhi in the seal. Besides, it is signed by one Sanjay
Bhardwaj, whose designation has been mentioned as ‘Director’ at ‘Rozgar
Bharti Karyalaya’ (Recruitment Office), Swarna Jayanti Sahakarita
Vibhag, Swarna Jayanti Swarozgar Yojana.
The matter came to fore
when at least two youths namely Ashish Meshram and Raja Hedau paid a
visit to Nagpur-based Commissionerate of MGNREGS on Tuesday and
Wednesday to enquire about the appointment letters they got. They met
Varsha Gaurkar, Assistant Commissioner (MGNREGS). Gaurkar told ‘The
Hitavada’ that the appointment letters indicated a fraud.
M
Sankaranarayanan, Commissioner, MGNREGS, said, “It is a fraud. We have
examined it. We have advised one of the youngsters to lodge a police
complaint. The so-called Swarna Jayanti Swarozgar Yojana organisation is
not related to any Government agency.” In the month of May this year,
the said organisation had issued an advertisement in some newspapers
inviting details from unemployed youth on given mobile phone number.
Some youths responded to it and got calls. After cursory interviews, the
said organisation sent appointment letters to the ‘selected’ youths and
sought ‘deposits’ for laptop, mobile phone etc.
According to M
Sankaranarayanan, the matter is far more serious. “A look at the
appointment letters received by youths from the city reveals that the
fraudsters are operating nation-wide. People need to be cautious,” he
said. Further, he made it clear that no such recruitment was envisaged
under MGNREGS and appealed to the people not to fall prey to unverified
offers.
Raja Hedau, a resident of Yashodhara Nagar, is one of the
youths who got duped. He passed Class X. He told ‘The Hitavada’ that
last month he saw an advertisement in a Hindi newspaper. “As stated in
the advertisement, I SMSed my name, address, PIN code to the mobile
phone number mentioned in it. Soon, I received a call. Within 15-20
days, I got an appointment letter offering job of Customer Service
Representative with monthly salary of Rs 30,500/-,” he said. As
mentioned in the letter, he called ‘Security Officer’ on given cellphone
number. The person at the other end of the call, identified himself as
Security Officer but did not reveal his name, and asked Hedau to deposit
Rs 13,850/- to a particular bank account in Gurgaon.
“I deposited
the amount to the account of one Kuldip Kumar on June 12. Within a hour,
I got a call that their officer would come for verification to my home
and hand over to me a laptop and a cellphone. Another officer called me
up the next day, assured me about laptop and mobile phone and asked for
Rs 12,500/- more to be deposited to the same account. As I was unable to
pay, I expressed inability. They threatened me of forfeiture of the
amount deposited earlier,” said a dejected Raja Hedau. However, he
followed up the matter and kept calling on the numbers he had. As a
result, later, the employees of the so-called Swarna Jayanti Swarozgar
Yojana assured him to return the money he had paid initially. But, Hedau
did not get back the money till Wednesday.
As a result, he said, he
reported the matter to MGNREGS Commissionerate here. He had gone to
Sadar Police Station also to lodge a complaint in this regard, but the
cops there advised him to file FIR at police station under which the
bank from which he had transferred money to Gurgaon account.
The ‘appointment letter’ carries
national emblem, PM’s photo The
appointment letter issued by the so-called Swarna Jayanti Swarozgar
Yojana displays Government of India emblem and logo of MGNREGS. Further,
it mentions about 4,500 jobs being on offer. It mentions its website as
‘swarnajayantirozgaryojana.com’. As one would expect, it is not found.
More
seriously, it carries a ‘black-and-white’ photograph of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi outside Parliament. Apparently, the photograph was taken
when the Prime Minister was addressing media. And, it appears to be an
image published elsewhere. However, the letter gives a misleading
caption that it was a scene from Swarna Jayanti Sabha. Further, the
letter carries photographs of various workplaces and wrongly captions
them as Customer Care Centres at Indore, Mumbai, Ludhiana, and Janakpuri
(Delhi).
The letter has a list of ‘service centres’ that include
Nashik, Thane, Solapur, Mumbai, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Nagpur in
Maharashtra, apart from other places like Allahabad, Lucknow, Kanpur,
Aligarh, Agra, Dehradun, Ghaziabad, Hisar, Sitapur, Jaipur, Jodhpur,
Patna, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Gwalior, Sagar, Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur,
Raipur, Howrah, etc. Obviously, this is an indication that the
fraudsters are operating nation wide, targeting gullible unemployed
youths.
(24-06-15)
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