At least eight houses constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) have gone ‘missing’ in Satna district where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had virtually presided over ‘grih pravesh’ handing over homes to the poor only last fortnight.
Though the ‘missing houses’ date back to 2017-18, sources said they were never built but shown as complete on papers in Rahikwara panchayat of Satna district. An FIR was registered against the then sarpanch, panchayat co-ordinator and gram rojgar sahayak of the Rahikwara panchayat under Nagaud janpad panchayat under relevant sections of the IPC.
On learning about the scam, district collector Anurag Verma suspended the panchayat co-ordinator and terminated the gram rojgar sahayak from the post on Friday.
“After the matter came to our notice an FIR was registered against the then sarpanch, panchayat co-ordinator and the gram rojgar sahayak. And the panchayat co-ordinator was suspended, while the gram rojgar sahayak was terminated from his post. So far around 8 such cases have been identified. Now, all the houses made in the panchayat under PMAY are being verified. Meanwhile police are also conducting a probe into the issue, and based on their probe also appropriate action would be taken”, Satna collector, Anurag Verma told.
Sources said that anomalies have surfaced in the houses built around 2017-18 in the panchayat, however since 2015-16 a total of around 496 houses have been shown to be completely built in the panchayat.
An official said that the modus operandi of the accused was such that the matter never came to light as they targeted people who were once residents but have migrated from the village.
The accused used to get houses sanctioned in the name of such people, hence, no one came to know about it. Later some accounts were opened in the names of the beneficiaries and money was withdrawn, the probe will also investigate the role of the bank staff as to how the accounts were opened and money was withdrawn. Prima facie 8 houses were not found but it is estimated that there could be more than 40 such houses in the same panchayat.
The accused have been identified as the then sarpanch Balvendra Pratap Singh, panchayat coordinator Rajeshwar Kujur and gram rozgar sahayak Brajkishore Kushwaha.
The matter had surfaced after a complaint by locals at the public hearing of the administration officials.
As of now around 10 teams have been constituted to probe all the houses that were said to have been built under PMAY in the village panchayat, said sources.
