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New Indian Express
23-05-2025
- New Indian Express
Four officials arrested for embezzling Rs 20 lakh in Rayagada's watershed project funds
BERHAMPUR/JEYPORE: Four officials of the watershed wing in Rayagada district were apprehended on Thursday by the Vigilance for allegedly misappropriating funds to the tune of Rs 20 lakh. The arrested officials were identified as assistant project director-cum-project implementing agency (APD-cum-PIA), Rajendra Nath Naik, two soil conservation overseers Jogendra Khosla and Deepak Kumar Sahoo, and soil conservation extension worker, Srikumar Nayak at the office of the project director, watershed in Rayagada. Sources said, the government had sanctioned around Rs 3 core under the MGNREGS for excavating farm ponds in Kashipur block of the district in 2022-23 and 2023-24 financial years. However, the vigilance got complaints that the officials misappropriated the funds without digging the farm ponds and embezzled the money. A Vigilance team visited different locations in Kashipur block and found around 23 farm ponds were not constructed and even beneficiaries were not aware that over their farm, ponds had been dug. The accused siphoned off the money to accounts of labourers having job cards and withdrew the same later. The team filed a case against the accused officials on Wednesday for misappropriating government funds of Rs 20 lakh and arrested them on Thursday. They were later produced in a special vigilance court of Jeypore on Thursday evening. Koraput Vigilance division SP RK Panda said, 'We have not found 23 farm ponds during investigation as they spent government funds by showing records and further verification is underway in the case to ascertain any other such misappropriation by these accused persons.'
Time of India
22-05-2025
- Time of India
4 officials arrested for bungling Rs 20 lakh
Koraput: Vigilance sleuths on Thursday arrested four officials in Rayagada district for allegedly misappropriating over Rs 20 lakh under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Kashipur block. The arrested officials are Rajendra Nath Naik, assistant project director-cum-project implementing agency (APD-cum-PIA), Jogendra Khosla and Deepak Kumar Sahoo, both soil conservation overseers, and Srikumar Nayak, a soil conservation extension worker. All were associated with the office of the project director (Watershed), Rayagada, according to an official release. Speaking to the media, superintendent of police (Vigilance) R K Panda said an inquiry was launched following complaints of large-scale corruption in the excavation of farm ponds under MGNREGS. The investigation revealed that the accused fraudulently diverted govt funds by falsely documenting the excavation of 23 farm ponds in villages across Kashipur block. " by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trade Bitcoin & Ethereum – No Wallet Needed! IC Markets Start Now Undo These ponds were never actually excavated. However, funds were disbursed and credited into the bank accounts of job card holders under MGNREGS and later withdrawn. These suspicious transactions are under further investigation," said Panda. He said the addresses of the purported farm ponds were in remote and forested areas, and physical verification confirmed that at least 23 of them did not exist. False bills were prepared to siphon off the funds, he added. Between 2022 and 2024, around Rs 3 crore was sanctioned for the digging of farm ponds in the region. So far, misappropriation of Rs 20 lakh has been detected, but officials fear the extent of the scam could be much higher. "Our field teams are conducting further verifications, and we suspect the number of ghost ponds and the misused funds may increase," Panda said.
