A Panchayat Executive Officer (PEO) was placed under suspension by the district Collector here on Wednesday following a video went viral in which she was found to be talking to a contractor of a CC road over the PC deducted from the final bill.
District Collector Amrit Ruturaj suspended PEO Sulekha Mallick of Purusottampur under Kendrapada block over the matter.
Biswasundar Sethy had taken a contract work for laying a cement concrete (CC) road near Hanuman temple at Maluha village. The cost of the work was Rs 3 lakh. As it’s a departmental work, work order for the contract was made on the name of the PEO of the GP. After the completion of work, the block authority sanctioned Rs 2.80 lakh, after deducting VAT, to the account of PEO Mallick.
But Mallick deposited Rs 2.53 lakh in the account of contractor Sethy after deducting Rs 27,000 as PC money. The video of the PEO went viral, in which she was talking with the contactor about deduction of the money to manage audit and also to provide 7 percent PC to the JE besides keeping 3 per cent for her.
The BDO of Kendrapada Ashok Kumar Mohanty and the PD DRDA later conducted an inquiry and submitted a report to the district Collector over the viral video.