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| 'RDD officials withdraw Rs 5 lakh on job card holder's name' | | | Asif Iqbal Naik
Early Times Report
Jammu, April 11: In a glaring example of corruption in the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department, the officials in Kishtwar's remote Warwan block withdrew around Rs 5 lakh on account of material cost on the name of a job card holder.
The job card holder came to know about the release of the money on his name only few months ago and was shocked to see that such huge amount stands withdrawn against his name without his knowledge.
Ghulam Hassan Rather, son of Karim Rather, of Kuzaz, Panchayat Afti in Warwan block alleges that an amount of around Rs 5 lakh was withdrawn by the officials of RDD department on his name during the year 2015-16-17 for five different works while another Rs 25.50 lakh was withdrawn against the names of other job card holders during the same year.
As per the documents available with Early Times, an amount of Rs. 70542.4, Rs. 58399.3, Rs.174549.2, Rs.113600 & Rs.82399.9 has been withdrawn on the name of Ghulam Hussain Rather. Surprisingly, four works have been shown done during the period 15-1-2017 as date of starting of work against 15-3-2017 as estimated date of completion of the work when whole Marwah and Warwan valley was under heavy snow cover ranging in between 5-10 feet of snow while one work was shown to be done in between 12-08-2016 to 12-10-2016.
As per the documents out of 22 works, 13 works were executed in between 15-1-2017 to 15-03-2017 during snowy season while rest of the work has been shown executed during month of August and May 2016.
In another surprising move, an amount of 6.40 lacs were spent on purchase of 12000 plants planted during the period 20-3-2016 and May 2016, the season which is not ripe for the plantation, particularly the month of March and April.
"12000 plants for single Panchayat is too much. It means whole Panchayat Afti should be full of trees. In fact it should be declared as horticulture village which it is not," said the people, adding that no work among the 22 works shown executed in papers existed on ground.
Against voucher No. 553, dated 18-2-2017, 8000 plants were shown purchased at the cost of Rs. 2,40 lacs from Bhat Nursery Qaimoh under plantation in land of job card holders in Panchayat Afti under convergence with Horticulture Department.
Similarly another 4000 plants were shown purchased from Abdul Gani, son of Wahab Wani for which an amount of Rs. 4 lacs were released vide voucher No. 544, dated 1-04-2016, and surprisingly during the said period all the roads leading to the village remains closed due to heavy snowfall at Margan top connecting Warwan block with rest of the state via Anantnag district of Kashmir, the only road link to the area.
Similarly, the remodeling of Kool at village Mingli was done at an estimated cost of Rs. 70544 during snow season and the amount has been withdrawn as carriage charges vide voucher No. 566. Similarly RR Stone (Granite), Stone Aggregated, R R Stone other then Granite B, stones were shown purchased on the name of different people.
The local people informed that this is the tip off iceberg among the several scandals that took place in the area under MGNREGA and called for independent probe into the material purchased in Marwah, Warwan and Dachhan blocks of Kishtwar District during last five years.
The people informed that one of the local employees of RDD withdrew more than Rs 1 crore as material cost on the name of his son and a driver added that majority of the works never executed on the ground.
The people called upon the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to order high level probe into the matter so that the money embezzled by the officials could be recovered and provided to the deserving and poor people of this remote and far flung area of the state. |
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