Around 200 Bihar officials punished for graft in welfare schemes: Minister

Round 200 gazetted officers of the Bihar Rural Improvement Division have been punished with transfers and stoppage of increments for his or her alleged involvement in large corruption in welfare schemes, minister Shravan Kumar mentioned on Friday. Punitive motion towards the erring officers was taken in the previous couple of months after widespread malpractices like enrolment of ineligible individuals and switch of crores of rupees into bogus accounts underneath flagship schemes corresponding to Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (housing) and Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal (piped water connection) got here to mild in the previous couple of years, the agricultural improvement minister mentioned.

“There isn’t any place for corruption in our authorities. Now we have initiated departmental motion/proceedings towards these erring gazetted officers of the Rural Improvement Officer cadre of the Bihar Public Service Fee, and supervisory officers, for dereliction of obligation.

“Departmental inquiry in sure circumstances was pending for a number of years. Senior officers have been requested to finalise the disciplinary proceedings towards the erring officers on the earliest,” Kumar informed PTI.

Paperwork accessed by PTI revealed that the Social Safety Pension Scheme hadn’t even rolled out in Madhepur block of Madhubani district in 2019, and in Punpun block of Patna district in 2018.

The division came upon irregularities within the distribution of scorching cooked meals to youngsters in Kurtha block of Arwal district in 2019, building of personal faculties on authorities land in Madhubani’s Harlakhi in 2014, not recovering funds price lakhs of rupees transferred to improper accounts underneath Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal Scheme in Lakhisarai’s Suryagadh, and advance withdrawal of Rs 49.27 lakh by officers from the treasury with out following tips in Lakhisarai in 2020.

It additionally discovered that ineligible individuals had been allegedly allotted homes underneath PMAY in Sahebganj, Marwan and Aurai blocks of Muzaffarpur district in 2018. Disciplinary motion was really helpful towards the officers involved.