Road not upgraded, fund misappropriation alleged

A resident of Nainidhar panchayat in district Sirmaur has alleged that no work has been done to upgrade a path leading to his village, approved under MGNREGA in 2020, and the funds approved for the project has apparently been misappropriated.

“An amount of Rs 9. 97 lakh was approved for metalling and widening of the narrow dirt road from Ghati to village Lambidhar. However, no work has been done on the road in the last four years,” said Praveen Rana, the resident of village Lambidhar.

In a complaint sent to Secretary, Panchayati Raj, and Deputy Commissioner, Sirmaur, in July, Rana alleged misappropriation of funds and dereliction of duty on the part of the concerned officials and panchayat representatives and requested an inquiry into it. Subsequently, the District Panchayat Officer directed BDO, Shillai, to visit the spot and apprise him of the actual situation on the ground.

“We have received directions from the District Panchayat Officer to visit the site to look into the work mentioned by the complainant. We have formed a technical team, which will visit the site shortly,” said Abhishek Thakur, BDO Shillai.

When the pradhan and panchayat secretary of the panchayat were approached, they said the project was approved during the tenure of their predecessors and hence they did not know much about it. Jagat Singh, the pradhan, said a retaining wall had been constructed under the project at Ghati, a small marketplace. “Much of the work on the retaining wall was over when I took over as the pradhan of the panchayat. In my tenure, only a portion of the wall was constructed,” he said.

The complainant, however, said no wall had been constructed on the path for which the budget was sanctioned. “The wall that has been constructed is not on the path leading to my village. If the budget was sanctioned for the Ghati-Lambidhar road, how can a wall be constructed elsewhere with the funds allocated for this project?” asked Rana.

Rana said that the project would have benefitted around 10-15 families, who have to walk to their homes through a narrow dirt road covered with overgrown and dense vegetation. “We have sent a complaint to the officials concerned, and we are hopeful that an inquiry would be ordered into it and our road would be widened and metalled at the earliest,” he said.