MORE SKELETONS TUMBLE OUT IN INDRA REHAB SCAM
the pioneer - STATE EDITION
MORE SKELETONS TUMBLE OUT IN INDRA REHAB SCAM
Monday, 30 September 2013 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar
In the latest development, the Nuapada police have arrested five more persons for their alleged involvement in the fraud pertaining to payment of rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) assistance to the displaced persons (DPs) in the Lower Indra Irrigation Project (LIIP).
The police had already arrested three persons two weeks ago and forwarded them to court. Acting upon the complaint of RTI activist Amit Ahir of Tarbod village on September 23, the police arrested Giridhari Kanda, an Amin of R&R section of LIIP and four others, including Kishore Chandra Kathar and Tukaram Sagaria of Budhachhapar, Jitamitra Karuan and Keshaba Karuan of Matiapadar villages. They were arrested under Sections 419, 420, 120(B), 468 and 47 of the IPC.
“Amit Ahir had produced detailed information on the fraudulent transaction in his complaint made to the SP of Nuapada. Acting on the complaint, the SP had directed us on September 24 to initiate the step,” said Komna IIC Malaya Naik, who is leading the investigation in Komna block.
“There is involvement of many other people, including Government officials and the local leaders and they will certainly be brought in to book,” added Naik. Bijayalal Sagaria and Subash Kata of Mathiapadar village told to police that the then special Land Acquisition Officer (LAO) Ashok Bag, Project Director (PD) R&R Gunanidhi Naik, Revenue Inspector Hrusikesh Patra, Amin Gajendra Naik and scribe Bijaya Sahish and Balabhadra Lohar were involved in the fraudulent transaction.
Amit Ahir and Pradip Sahu, who are well known social workers and RTI activists of the district, had obtained information from the R&R division of the LIIP and had conducted thorough investigation at ground level to identify the discrepancies between the data obtained and the ground realities.
“Some of the names in the DP list provided to us through RTI were fakes,” said Sahu, who added that he along with Ahir had filed a complaint petition before the SP requesting him to initiate the step.
“The number of fraudulent transactions would be more than 1,200 amounting to a bungling of more than Rs 40 crores,” said Sahu. “The interesting part of our investigation is that many influential persons of the district are involved in the case,” he informed.
He revealed that Amit Dholkia, one of the recipients of the fake transaction is the adopted son of the present Nuapada MLA Rajendra Dholkia. Amit and Akash Dholkia are the sons of Jitendra Dholkia who are not affected at all by the project, but they have been shown as the sons of a Project Affected Persons (PAP) of Budhachhapar village and have been awarded Rs 2 lakh each.
The details submitted by the complainants to the SP last Saturday revealed in 15 such cases, these people have been paid more than Rs 50 lakhs as R&R assistance. Dasmi Majhi, wife of Abani Majhi, a PAP of Kotamal village died on January 22, 2010 before getting her R&R assistance. But record shows that she has received the R&R amount of Rs 2.50 lakh two months after her death on March 27, 2010 vide cheque No 387441.
The cheque has been encased in the Utkal Gramya Bank of Bhela in Komna block. Two persons named Bana Majhi and Jogendra Nag of Kotamal village have put their signatures in the vouchers to identify that the woman who received the cheque was Dasmi. Bana and Jogendra have been left by the police after a primary interrogation.
In another case at Matiapadar village, one Amru Karuan has shown his three sons-in-law, who belong to three different non-affected villages (Dhumabhata, Daldali and Kunjelpada) as his sons and received payment for the trio. Son-in-law Brijlal Nial of Daldali was identified as Brij Karuan and a cheque of Rs 2 lakh has been issued to him on January 16, 2010.
Likewise, another son-in-law was paid the same amount vide cheque No-387463 on May 8, 2010.
There are also some names in the DP list, which are non-existent. There is no one in the name of Ashok Gaud in Belgaon village, but the name appears in the DP list and
Rs 2 lakh was paid to the person vide cheque No 540917 on June 8, 2011, which has been encashed in District Cooperative Bank at Komna.
“The project authority has not done any socio-economic survey for proper identification of the PAP. In the absence of that, it became easier for the corrupt officials and the touts to manipulate the list. Arbitrarily picking up some people in the affected villages, these officials formed committees and selected the president and secretary of the committees to prepare the DP list in every village. Fake lists have been prepared by the corrupt officials in connivance with the presidents and secretaries of the committees,” explained activist Sahu.
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