Hon’ble Devi Prasad Singh, J.—Instant writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India relates to misappropriation of fund, allocated to different districts of the State of U.P. by the Central Government under the ‘Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005’ (In short, MGNREGA).

2. Demons of corruption are hunting the public exchequer. Alexander Pope in his Moral essays (Epistle to Bathurst) had very nicely naratted the seriousness of corruption and its effect. To quote relevant portion :

“At length corruption, like a general flood,

(So long by watchful ministers withstood)

Shall deluge all; and avarice creeping on,

Spread low like a low-born mist, and blot the sun;

Statesman and patriot ply alike the stocks;

Peeress and butler share alike the box,

And judges job, and bishops bite the town,

And mighty dukes pack cards for half a crown,

See Britain sunk in lucre’s sordid charms.”

Whether India will sunk in lucre’s sordid charms ?

3. The material on record prima facie reveals startling facts with regard to misappropriation of fund allocated under MGNREGA right from lowest echelon of the elected representative, i.e. Pradhan, Gram Sabha members to the higher bureaucracy in a well netted collusive manner. The allegation, broadly, relates to seven districts of the State of U.P., i.e. Balrampur, Gonda, Mahoba, Sonbhadra, Sant Kabir Nagar, Mirzapur and Kushinagar in the year 2007 to 2010. The total fund allocated under MGNREGA for the seven districts in the year 2007-2008, 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 by the Central Government and expenditure incurred thereon as informed by Mr. Z. Zilani, learned Additional Advocate General is as under :

4. The petitioner, a media personnel when came to know regarding mal-practices under the Scheme (supra), has preferred the writ petition seeking a mandamus for investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation. During course of hearing, no serious objection has been raised with effective rebuttal with regard to pleading on record to the maintainability of writ petition as well as the material brought on record for CBI enquiry by the petitioner except that the State Government is seized with matter and proceeding ahead with enquiry from its own agency.

5. For effective supervision and control, the State Government has appointed State Quality Monitor (In short, SQM) to ensure proper utilization of the fund provided by the Central Government under MGNREGA.

6. It appears that on receipt of report with regard to blatant abuse of power and misappropriation of fund by the authorities in collusion with elected representatives holding various posts, Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Rural Development, Government of India, wrote a letter dated 24.10.2011(Annexure 4) to the then Chief Minister inviting her attention to the report submitted by SQM pointing out misappropriation of fund under the Scheme in seven districts. The Minister after drawing the attention to the report of SQM made a request for concurrence of urgent CBI probe into the abuse of fund during the implementation of MGNREGA in Balrampur, Gonda, Mahoba, Sonbhadra, Sant Kabir Nagar, Mirzapur and Kushinagar districts. It appears that the Government has given no heed to the letter dated 24.10.2011. Hence, he wrote another letter dated 14.11.2011 (Annexure 5) showing his deep concern to the misappropriation of fund under the Scheme (supra) in the aforesaid seven districts. He stated that no person has been punished right from 2007-08, though on the face of record, fund seems to have been misappropriated right from village Pradhan to the officers of the district concerned. The observations made by the Minister, Rural Development, Government of India in his letter dated 14.11.2011 (Annexure 5) with regard to seven districts are summarised as under :

DISTRICT BALRAMPUR

It has been pointed out by the Minister that on one count, the total misappropriation of fund comes to Rs.18118602/-. Relevant portion is reproduced as und