The gram pradhan and secretary of local panchayat in Udaibhanpur area of Sambhal district were involved in financial irregularities. The above sensational fact has been revealed following a probe conducted on basis of an application filed under Right to Information Act (RTI). Giving details of the case, Information Commissioner, Hafiz Usman said that an RTI activist, hailing from Saijana Muslim hamlet of Udaibhanpur, in Sambhal district, had informed him that he was not getting a reply to his application of gross misuse of development funds by local grampradhan and panchayat secretary. Usman said that finding the matter serious, he got the matter enquired from the local authorities and the findings which came before him on Friday had shocked him.
Usman said that the enquiry revealed that both the accused had shown that they laid kharanja from the house of one Ram Kumar till the local primary school and also constructed drainage. However, the report pointed that they had swindled Rs 30,000 in the name of above work. The probe also showed that the pradhan had called only one meeting of the panchayat and once his misdeeds came to the fore, he violated the laid norms by not calling any further meetings fearing the other members would raise their voice against swindling of the government fund.
Usman claimed that he directed the district magistrate of Sambhal to recover Rs 30,000 from the gram pradhan and the panchayat secretary and that action should be also taken against both in the above matter. Usman said that he asked DM to complete the above exercise within 20-days and sent a compliance report to him.