4 officers suspended for fund misuse

The State government has suspended four officials, including an executive engineer in Gulbarga zilla panchayat, for alleged misappropriation and misuse of funds meant for a drinking water project in the district and referred the case to the Upa Lokayukta for investigation.

Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RD&PR) Minister H K Patil said on Thursday that a preliminary probe conducted by IAS officer Munish Moudgil has revealed that there was largescale misappropriation and misuse of funds using false and fictitious bills and documents under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme.

Fictious bill

Funds to the tune of Rs four crore was found to have been spent for clearing false and fictitious bill in March 2013 alone. In many instances, bills have been cleared for unauthorised persons for unapproved works. “Certain individuals have been paid lakhs of rupees for tens of works. There is a systematic fraud,” report of the preliminary probe stated.

Asked whether there is involvement of any politician in the irregularities, Patil said the probe has not found any such thing. It appears that only officials are involved in this, he added.

M H Beemakkanawar, Executive Engineer, ZP, Gulbarga; S P Patil, Accounts Officer, ZP, Gulbarga, engineering division; Arun Kumar, Technical Assistant, ZP, Gulbarga, engineering division; Chandrashekar Nashi, Technical Assistant, ZP, Gulbarga, engineering division are the suspended officials.

Hyderabad Karnataka

Patil, who is the chairman of the Cabinet sub-committee for framing rules to implement the special status accorded to Hyderabad Karnataka region, he said the sub-committee will hold its final meeting on Friday. The draft rules will be finalised in the meeting, he added.