Chandbali: Bhadrak collector, Gyana Das Sunday suspended a Panchayat Executive Officer (PEO) in connection with irregularities in the distribution of relief sanctioned during flood in the district.
The PEO has been identified as Sanjaya Das of Aradi gram panchyat under Chandbali block in the district. The collector also recommended disciplinary action against Sanjaya.
It is learnt, that several complaints have been registered at the collector’s office by the villagers regarding the irregularities in the distribution of flood relief. In their complaint, the villagers alleged that Sanjaya was to distribute the relief materials to all the families in the panchayat.
However, the PEO reportedly distributed the relief materials on to a handful of families and bungled the rest. Many poor families were deprived of the relief and had to struggle for food during the flood.
The villagers alleged that some families, who were close to the PEO or bribed him, were given flood relief multiple times, when the other villagers were deprived of the same.
Acting on the complaint of the villagers, the district collector suspended Sanjaya. The Collector in an order also directed Sanjaya, not to leave the panchayat headquarters office without prior information of the BDO during the period of suspension.
On the other hand, the villagers further demanded high-level probe against the PEO as they suspected him of his involvement in several other irregularities in the panchayat during his job tenure.
The villagers also suspected the involvement of other officials in the flood relief distribution scam. They threatened the district administration to stage a protest, if the officials failed to take action against the officials involved in the irregularities.
PNN