Sanctions for Non-existent wells

3 suspended for siphoning of govt money
TNN 27 September 2009, 05:54am IST

DALTONGANJ: All is not well with the wells in Palamu where all stress is laid to creating more and more waterbodies to preserve water as long dry spells continue to plague this district frequently.

Three wells, at an estimated cost of Rs 89,000 each, were sanctioned under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act for a village under Lumba Satbahini panchayat of Pandu block in 2006. The wells were supposed to come up on the fields of three Dalits, namely Antu, Shiv and Krishna.

Strangely enough the wells were never sunk and the three had no knowledge of any well coming up on their fields either. To add to their woes, government money was shown to be paid to them when the trio had not even received a single pie.

Sources said the wells which were not dug up at all. A false measurement of digging wells was shown only in government books by a junior engineer.

Accordingly, payment to the tune of Rs 89,000 each was made to Antu, Shiv and Krishna by three government functionaries. Two of them were rajaswaya karamchari and the other a panchayat sewak.

Sources said it turned out that right from the then BDO down to the junior engineer to the panchayat sewak were all involved in the siphoning of government money.

Confirming this, Palamu deputy commissioner Amitabh Kaushal said a probe was conducted by district transport officer D B Singh, who indicted the officers for both embezzling government money and cheating the three Dalits.

He added that the two rajaswaya karamcharis, Suresh Ram and Rajeshwar Singh, and the panchayat sewak, Vishwanath Singh, have been put under suspension and departmental proceedings initiated against all three.

Regarding the then BDO Ram Parvesh Singh, the government has been asked to take stringent action against him. Sources said the embezzled amount of Rs 2,67,000 would be either realised from the salaries of the accused officials or else, they would face a protracted legal battle.

The above incident reminds me of a much earlier incident in Bihar.
A BDO had given a proposal for digging up a large piece of land to make a pond which would supply water to the village.
Rs 20.00 lakhs was sanctioned for the project and every year after that Rs 50000/- was allocated for upkeep of the pond.
When the BDO was transferred and a new BDO came, he found that there was no pond and yearly sanctions was also being defalcated.
He then drew up a fresh proposal for filling up the pond as it had become breeding ground for mosquitoes and was spreading cholera.
Rs 10.00 lakhs was sanctioned for filling up the non-existent pond.

It seems the embezzlement was discovered prematurely.
If they had waited long enough, another sanction would have been made for filling the wells.