Nabarangpur: The Centre has been pushing sanitation through the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’. However, the object of the scheme has been defeated in many cases due to alleged irregularities in Nabarangpur district, a report said. According to the report, action has been taken against some officials in certain cases after investigation while many officials at other places under Jharigaon block have not been covered under investigation.
As per official guidelines governing the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’, the final list of the beneficiaries will be decided by the executive engineer of the RWSS. It must be approved by the district collector. The names of the beneficiaries as per a village level survey will be displayed at the panchayat offices. The beneficiary himself/herself can do the toilet construction. In cases of any beneficiary expressing his/her inability to carry on the toilet construction work, any SHG, or village committee or a voluntary organisation will be asked to work on the construction.
After construction of every toilet, Rs 12,000 will be credited into the accounts of the beneficiaries.
It was learnt that 118 vendors have constructed 26,500 toilets in this block. A total of Rs 31.86 crore has been provided to the vendors’ accounts.
However, Congress leaders like Pradip Majhi and Munna Tripathy alleged that the block administration had stalled the bill of 1,980 toilets. They claimed that 405 beneficiaries have filed complaints at Jharigaon police station in this regard.
Meanwhile, BDO Debendra Bahadur Singh Dharua and JE Sunil Samal have been suspended.
As per the Collector’s letter-3168/2018 dated December 2018, the DRDA’s PD had been asked to monitor the toilet construction in Chandahandi, Jharigaon and Raighar blocks.
It was alleged that no action was taken against some vendors and officials, who are responsible for the irregularities.
The BDO said some vendors have been served notices while toilet work of some beneficiaries has been stuck halfway. Beneficiaries demanded that the state government start a high level investigation and taken action against the guilty. When asked about a vigilance probe into the matter, the BDO remained mum on the matter.