PM Awas Yojana supervisor caught taking bribe in Gujarat

A site supervisor of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in Gujarat's Banaskantha district was caught while taking a bribe of Rs 10,500 from a scheme beneficiary, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) said on Tuesday.

The complainant, a resident of Palanpur town in Banaskantha, submitted an application to the local municipality in 2018 to get financial assistance for building a house under the scheme.

The accused, Nirmal Gadhvi, was hired on contractual basis by the Palanpur municipality as site supervisor of the scheme.

He visited the site and gave his approval, following which the complainant received a financial assistance of Rs 1,30,000 in three instalments, the ACB said in a release.

However, Gadhvi then allegedly started demanding a bribe of Rs 10,500 from the complainant to release Rs 1 lakh towards the last instalment following which the latter approached the ACB.

The anti-graft agency laid a trap and caught Gadhvi while accepting the amount from the complainant on Monday, the release said.

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is a central government scheme to provide affordable housing to poor citizens.