Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan along with Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy, BJP State President BY Vijayendra and others at a press conference in Bengaluru on Thursday. | Photo credit: ALLEN EGENUSE J.
Alleging that the Congress is spreading lies about the VB-G RAM-G Bill to end the party’s “commission game”, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday trained its guns on “corruption and irregularities” in the implementation of MGNREGA in Yadgir and Kalaburagi districts.
The Union minister’s attack came hours after the uproar over Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot refusing to read out the state’s allegations on the VB-G RAM-G Bill in his address to a joint session of the state legislature. Incidentally, Kalaburagi is the home constituency of AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge and his son and RDPR Minister Priyank Kharge is in charge of the constituency.
At a press conference here, Mr. Chouhan exposed media reports of several men who disguised themselves as women by wearing sarees to illegally claim ₹ 3 lakh wages under MGNREGA scheme through fake identity.
Cases of irregularities
“There were 3,551 cases of irregularities where the work was done only on paper. Though the Congress government could have recovered ₹107.78 crore which was paid illegally in such cases, it did nothing,” he alleged.
Even the CAG in its report referred to such frauds in the work plan and recommended recovery of ₹24.12 crore. However, he claimed that only ₹2.47 crore was recovered by the Congress government in Karnataka.
Mr. Chouhan said his ministry conducted an inquiry following the complaints and it showed that machines were used instead of people in carrying out 21 works in five village panchayats of Aland in Kalaburagi district in 2024-25.
He sought to brush aside allegations that the Narendra Modi-led government had failed to emphasize the work plan. “The Narendra Modi government has so far sanctioned a total of ₹ 48,549.82 crore for the scheme in Karnataka alone as against ₹ 8,739.32 crore provided by the former UPA government,” he said.
He alleged that the Karnataka Governor could not read the entire text of the speech before the legislature as it was full of lies about the VB-G RAM-G Bill. “When the governor refused to lie, the Congress misbehaved with him,” alleged Mr. Chouhan and demanded action against the culprits.
Orientation
Mr Chouhan later conducted an orientation session on the new work plan for legislators, MPs and prominent BJP and JD(S) leaders. Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy also attended the orientation session.
Published – 22 Jan 2026 22:09 IST
