Nabarangpur: The Congress party has alleged large-scale irregularities in rural electrification programme under the Saubhgya Yojana in the district.
Addressing a pres meet here, president of the party’s district unit, Muna Tripathy alleged many rich people have got electricity connections to their houses while scores of poor people have been left out.
The party workers said Saubhagya scheme is meant for providing electricity to the poor people on subsidized rates.
In Nabarangpur municipality area, 2,657 people have got benefits from the scheme, but many rich people have managed to get the benefits.
The field official of the electricity distribution company was accused of showing favoritism to wealthy people in electricity supply to their houses.
In some cases, a beneficiary has more than one connection in his/her name. There are also several connections for government quarters.
Congress leader Muna Tripathy pointed out that Brundabati Majhi, a beneficiary of Tapakariaguda, has 12 electricity connections in her name while Jagannath Jani has got 10 connections under different consumer IDs and meters.
Many consumers are not issued bills as the field staff do not collect dues from these consumers by taking cuts from them, it was alleged.
The Congress workers have demanded a Vigilance probe into alleged irregularities in Saubhagya scheme.
The party has already got data about the irregularities under RTI and provided it to the executive engineer of the distribution company.
PNN