Rayagada pond scam: Vigilance scanner over 100 ‘ghost' waterbodies
BHUBANESWAR : The 23 non-existent farm ponds which the Vigilance is investigating in Rayagada district could just be the tip of the iceberg as the anti-corruption agency is now looking at over 100 such mini waterbodies that the Watershed officials allegedly dug up on 'pen and paper' and embezzled huge amount of government funds.
The scam over excavation of farm ponds under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme came to light after Vigilance arrested four officials for allegedly embezzling funds to the tune of Rs 20 lakh towards excavation of 23 farm ponds in Kashipur.
The government had decided to excavate farm ponds to recharge groundwater level in Rayagada. During 2023-2024, Watershed development wing undertook the work for 124 farm ponds in Kashipur block. Dimension of each pond was set at 20 metre (length), 15 metre (width) and 3 metre (depth). Excavation cost of each waterbody was estimated at Rs 2 lakh.
The officials not only made up these ponds on official files, they fabricated beneficiaries too. In fact, one set of beneficiaries was the people on whose land the farm ponds were proposed. The other was, job card holders under MGNREGA.
When Vigilance contacted owners of the land on which these 23 ponds were planned, it found that many of them had no knowledge of the scheme at all. 'Out of the 23 ponds under verification, 16 landowners were not even aware that officials had misappropriated government money by claiming farm ponds were excavated on their land. They had neither filed an application nor submitted documents for excavation of ponds on their land,' SP, Vigilance of Koraput, Rabindra Kumar Panda said.
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