Bhubaneswar: A local activist Friday lodged a complaint with the Lokayukta alleging Rs 2.21-crore fraud under CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority) programme by Kalahandi Forest department officials during 2015 to 2017.
The complaint filed by activist, Bindu Naik, is based on the information received through several RTI applications and ground survey reports.
As per the complaint, Naik suspected some wrongdoings under the GAP plantation and sought information about the details of plantation initiatives in Narla range of Kalahandi district by the office of divisional forest officer (DFO), North Kalahandi division during 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years.
Subsequently, the DFO’s office supplied documents of more than 1,000 pages in response to the RTI query. The documents revealed that the department utilised Rs 2, 21, 62,608 for GAP plantation in area measuring over 1,450 hectar of land in Kerabandhi, Narla and Sargiguda under CAMPA and Ama Jangal Yojana.
However, an on-field inspection in the plantation area exposed that several officials of the Forest department including the rangers, foresters and watchers had misappropriated all the funds through forged vouchers and bills in the names of labourers.
The officials had made payments worth around Rs 7 lakh through contract vouchers violating the Odisha Forest Code. As per the rules, the payments must be transferred to the bank accounts of the daily wagers named properly in the muster rolls maintained by the officials.
Meanwhile, the muster rolls maintained by the officials also have fake lists of labourers.
Naik alleged in his complaint that though the officials had mentioned about the payments of around Rs 2 lakh to the bank accounts of daily wagers, it was found that the concerned labourers do not have accounts in the banks.