Irregularities in schemes come to fore

Shared by Sri Dillip Kumar Das

The Pioneer, May 22, 2012
Large scale irregularities in various schemes, including food security, mid-day meal and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in Thuamul Rampur block of Kalahandi district have come to the fore.

The funds of the Central and the State Governments have been misappropriated with gross violation of norms by the employees in various departments in the district which has been found by the members of MDM Monitoring Committee and Right to Food Campaign, Odisha.

Three members of the MDM Monitoring Committee visited different schools and Anganwadi centres of Thuamul Rampur block on Thursday and Friday and collected information from the villagers during which they have got to know about the bungling of funds under various schemes by the Government staff. They were scheduled to meet the Chief Secretary at Bhubaneswar to apprise him on the matter.

Pradipta Nayak, a member of the MDM Monitoring Committee and Pradip Pradhan and Tapan Padhi, members of Right to Food Campaign, Odisha, have alleged that lakhs of rupees have been misappropriated in the primary school of Bhejiguda, Podapadar, Dalguma, Bhataguda and Purunaguma under Karlapat Gram Panchayat of Th.Rampur block and Lelingpadar of Sagada GP under Bhawanipatna block.

The villagers’ complaints that the construction of a primary school building at Lelingpadar has been going on for last three years and not completed yet and that for last 10 years, teachers were not attending the school were viewed seriously by the committee members. Besides, the villagers alleged that the MDM is not being provided by the School Management Committee (SMC). The students go to the Karlapat Primary School which is situated two km from Lelingpadar to get MDM.

After inquiry, Pradipta Nayak told the media that in both the schools the student names have been enrolled as having served MDM. So, the MDM fund is being siphoned off by the Cluster Resource Centre Co-ordinator (CRCC) and Headmaster of the school, he said.

Similarly, in other villages, the committee found that the schools remained closed for months in Th.Rampur block, MDM not provided for months and cooks were also not paid for years by the School Management Committee. The committee found that the Government staff members have violated the Right to Education -2009 by not constructing the boundary wall, toilet and kitchen rooms in many schools of Th Rampur.

The committee members also visited different Anganwadi Centres and found that three kg Chhatua is being provided in many centres instead of four kg. Besides, they also alleged that the pregnant women are being provided four kg of Chhatua instead of five kg under Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).