The people of Baro gram panchayat on Thursday staged a unique protest in front of district Collector office main gate by organising a yajna and pujapath. The objective was to appease the almighty to give conscience to the BDO of Kendrapada and an opportunity to meet district Collector to press their demands of taking action against a Junior Engineer, Sarpanch , VLW and GRS for their unholy nexus in looting the NREGS funds.
According to the agitators, district Collector Amrit Ruturaj in February had directed the BDO of Kendrapada to issue show-cause notice to a Junior Engineer of Kendrapada block , Sarpanch of Baro , VLW and GRS of Baro GP following they were found guilty for their involvement in large scale of corruption in MGNREGS projects.
The BDO of Kendrapada on February 26 had issued so cause notices to JE Gopal Chandra Das, Sarpanch Sushila Rout, VLW Bauribandhu Pradhan and GRS Nalinikanta Mohanty and directed them to submit their replies within three days.
But ironically, though more than a month has passed , but BDO of Kendrapada remained silent without taking any action against errant officials and local sarpanch. Though villagers have attempted at least thrice to meet district Collector in this regard, they were yet to get an access, said an aggrieved villager.Notably, corruption came to fore in Baro panchayat recently when a social audit report was submitted to BDO of Kendrapada.
In report it was cited that a sum of Rs 1.33 lakh had been withdrawn only for wages on MNREGS work of developing a playground of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya without producing measurement book and bill ,which is purely illegal.
Similarly, large scale corruption was made in Baro playground developmental work ,that was made with an estimated cost of Rs 3 lakh and construction of a rural park with an estimated cost of Rs 1 lakh near Tarando high school under MGNREGS projects.