Rajnagar: A video featuring a man claiming how he has been declared dead only to misappropriate the money meant for a dead person under ‘Harischandra Yojana’ is fast moving from mobile phones to mobile phones here, evoking strong reactions among the people here in Kendrapara district.
Bansidhar Swain (70), a resident of Shilapokhari village under Iswarapur panchayat in Rajnagar block is very much alive and well. Curiously though, the Harischandra Yojana documents of Ishwarapur panchayat proclaim Bansidhar a dead man.
He died September 18, 2018 on official papers.
The papers have further mentioned that sarpanch Parshuram Barik had visited Bansidhar’s house himself to hand over the money under Harishchandra Yojana to the deceased’s next of kin. The documents bearing the signature of the sarpanch and panchayat executive officer also show that the deceased’s son Gajendra Swain had received the Rs 2000 from the sarpanch.
But in reality, Bansidhar’s only son Baburan – who works in Kerala – is not even aware of the developments.
The practice of siphoning off Harischandra Yojana money by killing living people in pen and papers here came to fore after a man from the same village recently got these startling facts through Right to Information (RTI).
Bansidhar was visibly upset when he was exposed of this scheme and how his name was misused. He found it hard to believe that the men involved would stoop to so low to kill him on papers to pocket as low an amount as Rs 2,000.
He got a video recorded wherein he demands action against the corrupt persons. In the video, he has accused the sarpanch and the panchayat executive officer of their involvement.
When contacted, panchayat executive officer Prabhat Kumar Mallick said, “The incident did not happen during my tenure. It happened during the tenure of my predecessor Sadhucharan Swain.”
When asked, Sadhucharan Swain, who is presently working as the panchayat executive officer of Ghadiamal panchayat said, “The block development officer (BDO) usually asks the sarpanch to disburse the Harischandra Yojana money and accordingly I distribute them. I never go through the documents to find out against whom the voucher has been made.”
Surprisingly, sarpanch Parshuram Barik too tried to push the ball to someone else’s court. “It is not me who distributes Harischandra scheme money. Panchayat executive officer does it,” he clarified.
Local residents expressed their concerns, sought an enquiry into the incident and demanded stringent action against all erring officials.
PNN