Junior engineers manipulate rules in construction works, siphon off funds in Rajasthan

The Kaladeo health centre in ruins just three years after it was builtKaladeo in Rajsamand district was always held up as a model gram panchayat. In 1993 as many as 16 construction works such as a health centre, school and ration shop were sanctioned for this panchayat.Most of these works were sanctioned under Central and state schemes that work on a 70:30 ratio, which means that the Government puts in 70 per cent of the money after the villagers have raised 30 per cent. Such schemes serve a dual purpose: provide jobs and benefit the village. Contractors are banned in such programmes.But how the junior engineer manipulated the rules is quite a story. Take the Kaladeo health centre, built at a cost of Rs 1 lakh. That means villagers should have raised Rs 30,000. Anxious to get projects cleared in his area, the junior engineer told petty village contractors to put up Rs 15,000 and show construction material worth the remaining Rs 15,000. They were then asked to submit fake construction muster rolls worth Rs 15,000 to recover their cash investment, along with the materials worth Rs 15,000. Half the money meant for projects was siphoned off.From the Government's Rs 70,000, the junior engineer kept a 10 per cent commission and the small thekedars constructed the centre - and made a profit - from the remaining money. Says Mot Singh, a petty contractor who worked on one of the the 16 projects: "By the time we realised what was going on, we were in it too deep. The corrupt engineer also corrupted us villagers." The other result of the junior engineers' elaborate charade was that no employment was generated-the basic aim of most anti-poverty schemes. Explains Singh: "We were in a jam. We were told to build something worth one lakh for half that amount. So we did not hire any labour - just a few family members chipped in." Adds Nikhil Dey of the MKSS: "Ultimately, a building worth Rs 1 lakh was built for Rs 50,000." Little wonder that, three years later, they are collapsing like sand houses. Consider the health centre. Never fit for human habitation, it is now in ruins. The only consolation villagers have when they see the eyesore is that the junior engineer Malkhan Singh has been suspended. Tapping his walking stick on the crumbling walls, village elder Lal Singh says: "Yeh to choron ka ghar hai (this is a house of thieves)."Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 15, 1996 00:00 IST--- ENDS ---

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Junior engineers manipulate rules in construction works, siphon off funds in Rajasthan

Kaladeo in Rajsamand district was always held up as a model gram panchayat. In 1993 as many as 16 construction works such as a health centre, school and ration shop were sanctioned for this panchayat.

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