Jagatsinghpur: Some unscrupulous government employees and elected members at Jadatira panchayat under Tirtol block in this district have no serious qualms about pocketing Harischandra Yojana money by showing living persons as dead.
In the month of August, 2013, the state government launched the ‘Harischandra Yojana’ for providing financial assistance to needy and poor people to perform the last rites of their departed members and for cremation of unclaimed bodies. The assistance amount is Rs 2,000 in rural areas and Rs 3,000 in urban areas.
According to data made available under the RTI Act, Seshadev Nathsharma, a resident of Jadatira died January 1, 2019. At that time, the family members applied for assistance under Harischandra Yojana to perform the last rites of Seshadev. But the sarpanch and executive officer of the Jadatira panchayat office did not listen to them, nor did the former release the assistance money.
Later, it came to the fore that the panchayat had given Rs 2,000 to Jyotsna, daughter-in-law of Seshadev to perform Seshadev’s last rites September 15, 2018. Interestingly enough, Seshadev was alive then and died only after three months, January 1, 2019 to be precise. More surprisingly, Subhrajit, Seshadev’s son, was a minor and unmarried on the date when the assistance money was released.
So it is crystal clear that the panchayat officials had killed and mentioned a minor as married only to pocket the assistance money under Harischandra Yojana.
Seshadev’s is not the only case but there are 60 such people–Niyati Nathsharma, Bata Sutar, Krushnachandra Sutar, Ranjan Nath and Rabindra Dash to name but a few– who were intentionally shown as dead in office register to misappropriate the assistance money, alleged Subhrajit Nathsharma, Asish Sharma and Boina Ojha.
When contacted, Tirtol block development officer Ramesh Parida said stringent action would be taken against the guilty ones after an investigation.
Even as ‘5T’ and ‘Mo Sarakar’ yojanas are there to bring in transparency in the government system and instill a sense of responsibility among the officials, there are some unscrupulous officials and elected members in Tirtol block as well as in the district who are still making a mint of money.
PNN