Panchayat Dept to make recovery from sarpanches, panchayat secys

FATEHABAD: The Development and Panchayat Department in Fatehabad will initiate steps for the recovery of excess money paid for the purchase of reinforced cement concrete (RCC) benches for various villages.

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Fatehabad, September 2

The Development and Panchayat Department in Fatehabad will initiate steps for the recovery of excess money paid for the purchase of reinforced cement concrete (RCC) benches for various villages.

Rajesh Koth, District Development and Panchayat Officer (DDPO), today informed The Tribune that he had initiated steps for the assessment of actual value of the benches, including VAT and transportation charges, by the engineering wing of his department .After receiving its report, the recovery of excess money would be made from those responsible for the purchase, Koth said.

The Tribune exposed in these columns today the purchase of over 2,500 RCC benches at an exorbitant price of over Rs 10,000 per piece against the market price of around Rs 2,000.

Koth said a committee comprising the Additional Deputy Commissioner, the DDPO, District Food and Supplies Commissioner (DFSC) and the Executive Engineer of the Panchayat Department fixed the rates of items like cement, sand and other building material generally needed by the panchayats.

For other items, the panchayats had to go through the process of quotation.

Clarifying that no directions had been issued by the department for the purchase of these benches, Koth said village panchayats were autonomous bodies under the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, and these were empowered for purchases and making payments from bank accounts maintained jointly in the name of the sarpanch and the panchayat secretary.

He, however, admitted that if the same item (RCC benches in this case) is purchased at the same time from the same supplier by a large number of panchayats, a nexus at some level could not be ruled out.

Koth said it was a matter of inquiry as to how a large number of panchayats felt the need for RCC benches almost at the same time and whether the benches so purchased were placed at public places or not.

He said he had asked his Block Development and Panchayat Officers (BDPOs) of the areas concerned as to how they failed to notice the purchases and what steps did they take to stop it.

Interestingly, one of the BDPOs has replied that after the scam came to his notice, he was able to bring down the price of the benches for the rest of the panchayats in his area.