The Centre has sent 280 special teams to various states to investigate alleged irregularities in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MNREGA) .

The Rural Development Ministry said this in reply to an RTI query. Our correspondent reports, the teams had been sent to Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Punjab, Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat among others.

The charges probed by them included siphoning off funds, misappropriation and misutilisation of money allotted for the scheme, preparation of fake job cards and muster rolls.

As per norms, investigation of graft under MNREGA rests with the State governments concerned. However, the Ministry sends its special teams of National Level Monitors , which constitute retired civil servants and ex-servicemen, in cases where it suspects large scale corruption.

MNREGA was launched in 2005 to guarantee employment of minimum 100 days to people living below the poverty line.