Corruption complaints in toilet construction under Swachh Bharat Mission in Bargarh district have been filed. Beneficiaries are unhappy that though the officers of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation were caught by vigilance while taking bribe for clearing bill for the same projects. As per the information, rupees 12000 are sanctioned to the beneficiary to construct one toilet under this scheme. According to the guideline, the beneficiary himself, Self Help Group (SHG), or the RWSS of the village can construct the toilet. 27 volunteers from the district have been given training of motivator to create awareness about the project. But the officers of the department are not giving any work to them.
As per the information, works at Bhatli and Ambabhona blocks are going on under the direct supervision of the Executive Engineer and Junior Engineer of the department with the help of contractor and masons from Bihar.
As per the complaint, they are directly building the wall with bricks without laying any concrete foundation. Again they are using broken brick in place of cement ring for the waste tank.
According to the complaint of the beneficiaries, earlier they used to take Rs 500 to Rs 1000 now the officers of the department are taking Rs 2000 to clear the bill. A junior Engineer was caught red handed by the vigilance while taking bribe from the beneficiary at Ambabhona. Apart from this, in Bargarh district no village is open defecation free. But the government website has published names of 20 villages under as ODF. In villages like Khairpali, Kuturapali, Badmal, Antaradi, Ruchida, Udepali, Sukuda, Tala, Banjipali, Nuangarh, Kusunapuri etc out site contractors are working and huge irregularity have been found.
In some block photo of old toilets have been shown in bills. Till date the department is saying they have build only 5000 toilets but the irregularity is suspected in crores.
