GP prez vamooses with funds, govt wakes up

The State government has planned to make fingerprint authentication of taluk officers mandatory for withdrawals under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

The move comes in the wake of a gram panchayat president, along with panchayat development officer (PDO), withdrawing Rs 2.4 crore grants meant for the scheme, by creating fake bills.

Narrating the incident, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister H K Patil told reporters on Friday that Rudragouda Patil, the president of Gaura B gram panchayat in Gulbarga, and PDO Pramod Morgan had created 350 fake bills under MGNREGS each amounting between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh.

They had planned to draw Rs 5.3 crore but banks found something amiss and held back the withdrawal of Rs 2.9 crore. However, the duo had made away with the remaining Rs 2.4 crore and are absconding. Police have registered a case.

The duo seem to have colluded with six vendors and one of them has been arrested, Patil said. He said the department had set a target of constructing 10 lakh toilets under the total sanitation campaign and ensure the State was free of open defecation by 2018.

The overall target is to construct 50 lakh toilets. The department, which launched this year’s campaign on September 10, has received 2.35 lakh applications so far. 

The drive will continue till September 15. Each toilet is being constructed at a cost of Rs 10,100. The total cost will amount to Rs 110 crore.

On Chief Minister Siddaramaiah suggesting scrapping of elections for taluk panchayat and making it an advisory body, Patil said the government will take a decision based on the recommendation of a committee headed by former Speaker Ramesh Kumar, which was studying the implementation of the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act since its enactment in 1993.

He said as many as 1.47 lakh open and defunct borewells had been closed between August 6 and September 5 this year.