STATE TIMES NEWS
SUNDERBANI: Alleging large scale embezzlement of flood relief funds issued by Union Government to carry out relief and rehabilitation operations, after the 2014 floods struck, the Team Sunderbani on Wednesday accused the Sub-Division Nowshera of being hand-in glove with the contractors in doing corruption with regard to the utilization of the funds and appealed the state government to initiate high level probe to investigate the matter.
Addressing the media Amit Sharma, prominent member of Team Sunderbani said that the officials PHE and Irrigation Sub-Division Nowshera was hand in glove with contractors in drawing huge amount from the funds without prior approval of the higher authorities as the former had issued various work projects of huge amount to the later without any tendering process.
“In 2014, after the flood wrecked havoc in the parts of the State including damage to lives and property in the district Rajouri, the Union government had issued an amount of Rs 50 lakhs to carry out relief operations in the affected areas in three divisions Kalakote, Sunderbani and Nowshera. The fund released was especially meant for carrying out repair works under PHE and Irrigation departments as extensive damage was caused to the infrastructure,” he said.
He alleged that top PHE and Irrigation officials instead of listing and allotting the works favoured a blue-eyed contractor who was assigned the job without following proper procedure. He further said that none of the work was executed on the ground but the payment released in the favour of the said contractor without any delay which amounts to corruption.
Sharma sought the intervention of Chief Minister and the Minister concerned into embezzlement of funds by PHE & Irrigation Department with the connivance of the Top official Sub-division Nowshera.
Among those who were present in the press-conference included, Kulwant, Rajinder Sharma, Sarabjit Sharma, Gian Singh, Ashwani Kumar and Rajesh Prasher.
