Balasore: Amid allegations of irregularities, some developmental activities under Grampanchayat Development Programme (GPDP) are being carried out without approval of any Gram Sabhas in various panchayats under Sadar block in Balasore, a report said.
Some panchayat executive officers and junior engineers are allegedly involved in such activities. Allegations in this regard have reached the grievance cell of the Collector.
Following the allegation, assistant engineer of the DRDA had conducted a probe and submitted a report to the district administration. However, there has been no action in this direction.
The report said, funds under 14th Central Finance Commission are provided to panchayats to carry out developmental activities. As per existing guidelines, there is a need for approval to the proposed projects by people in Gram Sabhas.
Then, the approved projects in Gram Sabhas are required to get nods from BDOs, panchayat executive officers and junior engineers before they are included in the agenda of the financial years.
Here is a case in point. Take the instance of Gopinathpur panchayat where over 50 villagers had made a written complaint with the district administration that over Rs 3 lakh was spent on renovation of Pokhari ghat (under GPDP) at Kathapal and Nalda panchayats in 2019-20 without approval of Garam Sabhas.
Surprisingly, panchayat executive officers and junior engineers of two panchayats allegedly pleaded that they were not aware of the execution of the projects.
The villagers had drawn attention of Collector K Sudarshan Chakraborty towards illegalities in GPDP.
The Collector had asked the BDO to conduct a probe into it. Later, the DRDA received a report from an assistant executive engineer of the block in this regard. The report pointed out that the renovation of two Pokhari ghats was carried out without the approval of the officials.
The PD, DRDA,, has submitted the report (31/20) to the Collector. After the report was out, the villagers have demanded action against the officials and people involved in the irregularities.
Junior engineer Purusottam Karan said that he was not aware of the work. He has not got any report from nay officials in this regard. The JE told this correspondent to ask the panchayat executive officer.
When asked about it, Gopinathpur panchayat executive officer Iswhwar Das said: That then BDO Shankarshan Behera had said the work of the two ponds had been started. Then panchayat executive officer Ramchandra Mohapatra had encouraged such type of work. The work had not been included in GPDP plan. That work was included in the action plan in 2020-21 fiscal.
