Costs of repairs of roads exceeds construction costs;Harsh appeals for vigilance probe in RDD frauds

STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: With corruption engulfing the State like bubonic plague during the present regime, the Rural Development Department appeared to be worse afflicted, said Harsh Dev Singh JKNPP Chairman and former Minister.
He said that with complaints of irregularities and plunder of public money being reported in the media on regular basis, it was regrettable that there was none to respond or to take cognizance.
He revealed that scope of manipulations and frauds had enlarged manifold in the recent past so as to cover fake and fictitious bills, fake muster rolls, fraudulent vouchers, double drawls for same works, payments for nonexistent works, fake repairs, inflated bills and crores of public money was being siphoned off without any check.
He was addressing a meeting of Panthers Party workers here on Friday, convened in connection with Panchayat Elections who further apprised that commission in RDD had increased by 2 per cent from existing 22 per cent to 24 per cent in the recent past.
Harsh regretted that with the culture of patronised corruption having crossed all limits, the complaints of general masses were being thrown into the dustbin. He said that funds amounting to crores have been siphoned off by the corrupt politician-Department nexus under MG-NREGA, SDRF and 14th Finance Commission with none to take cognizance. With the corruption having beaten all previous records, the people had lost faith in the present dispensation, said Singh. He regretted that he had himself filed complaints with Minister RDD and top functionaries which had been disregarded and appealed to the SVC and SVO to hold high level probe into the Rural Development scams.
Pointing towards the glaring instances of mal practices, Harsh said that 18 tractor roads were repaired in Ramnagar constituency recently under SDRF and interestingly the payment drawn for repairs of said tractor roads was more than the cost of their original construction in each such case. Likewise, Singh said that payment amounting to Rs. 1.50 lakh had been withdrawn for maintenance of Bowli Khalair in Nagrota Panj-Grain under 14th Finance last month notwithstanding the fact even the construction of the said Bowli was awaiting approval from ACD Udhampur. Highlighting the pathetic scenario prevalent in the RDD sector in Ramnagar constituency, Singh said that the corruption ridden department was fully exposed recently by one of its own employees who resigned from the post of GRS alleging large scale malpractices and frauds which he said had caused him suffocation. Divulging the details, Harsh said that one Ravinder Singh, a Gram Rozgar Sevak posted in Chore Panjain Panchayat had submitted his resignation in April last stating therein that he was constantly under pressure from his corrupt colleagues to connive in the irregularities with threats also hurled upon him to prepare fake and fictitious bills which had greatly shaken his conscience and shattered his faith in the Deptt. forcing him to resign. He said that the matter was reported to all higher authorities including Minister concerned who only hailed the resignation of a conscientious employee but refused to take cognizance of the malpractices highlighted.
Seeking the indulgence of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Singh sought the nailing of the corrupt and initiation of stern action so that it acted as deterrent for other corrupt elements in the system.