Jajpur: The development of Nagada village in Jajpur, infamous for malnutrition death a few years ago, has been marred by irregularities, a report said.
A case was registered against three engineers of the rural development department over alleged irregularities in the Nagada road repair.
Due to unholy nexus between the officials of the rural development department and local leaders, huge funds meant for a road project for the village has been embezzled.
The road work was started in 2016-17. After years, the irregularities in road work came to the fore when a complaint was filed at the police station in this regard.
A senior official of the rural development has probed the matter, but no action had been taken against those involved in the fund embezzlement.
It was alleged that the matter has come to the police station only because of a dispute on sharing of embezzled fund to the tune of Rs 44 lakh.
According to the report, Nagada village in Chingudipal panchayat under the mineral-rich Sukinda block hit media headlines in 2016 after malnutrition deaths of children.
Both the state and the central governments paid focus on its development. A number of projects were undertaken in the inaccessible village. A road was laid from Ashokjhar to Lower Nagada by cutting through a hilly terrain.
However, the hilly road was always washed away in rains. There was a need for a concrete road to the village, but no step was taken to build the pucca road.
It was stated that through secret tenders, Rs 44 lakh was spent on repair of the road. There was allegation of largescale irregularities in fund utilization.
Acting on the allegation, superintending engineer of Kendrapara-Jajpur rural development division Sanjib Kumar Das investigated the irregularities in December, 2021.
However, no action was taken against the officials involved in the scam.
The superintending engineer, who looked into the irregularities, filed a complaint at the Kaliapani police station against Bijay Kumar Moharana, executive engineer of Jajpur RD division-1, Venkatraman Muduli, assistant executive engineer of the Duburi sub-divisional RD office and Rasananda Barik, junior engineer of the Tamka section.
The work was allegedly done through secret tenders on the recommendation of some local leaders.
These engineers had been pressurized to repair the road within 15 days, it was alleged.
In the complaint, it was stated that Visakhapatnam-based Hayagriva Infratech Project was awarded the construction work of the 7.6-km long road from Ashokjhar to Nagada at a cost of Rs 12.95 crore.
The fund was provided from the district mineral foundation (DMF) fund. The work was started from September 10, 2016 and completed March 3, 2017.
After two years, two contractors – Smrutirekha Behera and Pranay Sethi – were awarded the repair work of the road through 10 secret tenders. Each tender was Rs 5 lakh.
Following the complaint, Kaliapani IIC Sushant Kumar Das registered a case against the executive engineer of Jajpur RD division-1, assistant executive engineer of Duburi sub-divisional RD office and the junior engineer of the Tamka section.
The officials have been asked to come to the police station January 12 along with documents related to the road repair.
Contacted, executive engineer Bijay Kumar Moharana said the road washed away by rain has been repaired. He denied irregularities in the road.
PNN
