Bhubaneswar: The Odisha vigilance Thursday arrested four government officials for allegedly embezzling public money over Rs 20 lakh.
On the allegations of misappropriation of government funds without excavation of farm ponds under MGNREGA in Kashipur block of Rayagada district, the Odisha vigilance conducted an investigation and found that the four were involved in financial irregularities, said an official.
The vigilance arrested an assistant project director, two soil conservation overseers, and a soil conservation extension worker, he said.
All the four are serving in the office of project director (PD), watershed, Rayagada. They were found to have embezzled government money over Rs 20 lakh without excavating 23 farm ponds in different villages of Kashipur block in the district, he said.
The accused officials were found to have siphoned off the amount to accounts of labourers having job cards and withdrawn the same. Transactions are under verification, the official said.
In this connection, a case has been registered at Koraput vigilance police station against all the accused persons. Further investigation is under process, he added.
Meanwhile, a team of Odisha vigilance caught an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of Tigiria police station in Cuttack district while taking a bribe of Rs 5,000 from a complainant for compromising a dispute between him and another villager.
Following the trap, simultaneous searches are going on at three locations of the ASI, vigilance sources said.
