Three lathikata block officials, including the Block Development Officer, in Sundargarh district were arrested by a Vigilance team from Cuttack and forwarded to the Special Vigilance Court, Sundargarh on the charges of misappropriation of about Rs 42 lakh in the much-publicised case of no-tender road work at Garjan village.
The officials, instead of calling tender, had executed the work departmentally splitting the total tender value of Rs 1.32 crore into 22 parts.
Acting on allegation of large-scale irregularities in the execution of the 1.5-km concrete road work, the Vigilance police had
conducted a raid in October 2018. Further raids were conducted in the houses and offices of BDO Purna Chandra Bhoi, Assistant Executive Engineer Raj Kishore Sahu and Assistant Engineer Budheswar Sahoo. "Calculating the value of the roads constructed in Garjan village, we came to understand that about Rs 42.43 lakh has been misappropriated," said Vigilance DSP Prakash Nayak, who led the raid team from Cuttack.
All three arrested persons were sent to judicial custody as their bail petitions were rejected by the Vigilance court.