DJ Venkatesh

Diglipur, Nov 30: A general meeting under the chairmanship of Asst. Commissioner Dr. Vivek Kumar held today at GPO building, Diglipur which was Organized by Pramukh, Panchayat Samiti Mr. Gauranga Dutta, participated by all Head of the departments, PRI members and public. It was decided that the Mela will be called ‘Diglipur Vikas Mela’ and will be held from 10th to 15th Jan 2013.
A committee was chosen to organize this mela. It gives a festive look, exhibitions, displaying arts and crafts, flora and fauna and marine life will be part of the event, Cultural troupes and artistes who will be here during ITF will be added attraction of this mela added the Asst. Commissioner. Various cultural programs are planed which will charge the exhilaration of the people. The aim is to draw attention to the rural development in this island. During this event, various aspects of rural lives in these areas are on display.

 

D J Venkatesh
Diglipur, Nov 29: The Kishori Nagar Panchayat of Diglipur has reached another milestone by running one tractor of the same Panchayat for 40 hours in one day. Believe it or not the Panchayat has also raised money by issuing the tractor to different persons.

Receipt no from 1202-1217 & 1237 by issued by Gram Panchayat Kishori Nagar in different names prove that on 24/11/2010 (which as usual had only 24 hours) the tractor provided on hire for 40 long hours. However, how the Panchayat had performed the miracle is still now known.

Surprisingly even after running the tractor for so many hours the Panchayat earned only Rs. 38,000 in 2010, while the expenditure to maintain the tractor was Rs. 4 Lack (spares, diesel, driver, cleaner and operating charges).

Matter does not end here, According to documents obtained through RTI, the Panchayat purchased fuel for the tractor from a spare parts shop while ANIIDCO pump was operating at that time.

It seems that empowerment of PRI has started yielding results in Andaman.

 

DJ Venkatesh

Diglipur, Nov 25: Believe it or not, on an average the Kishori Nagar Panchayat is spending Rs. 3,789 per year on each street light under its jurisdiction. Call it a highest standard of gross mismanagement or a scam, this practice is reportedly continuing in the Panchayat even today.

Documents available with Andaman Sheekha show that there are total 247 Street Lights in Kishori Nagar Panchayat of Diglipur and only for repair works of these street lights the Panchayat spends Rs. 23,000 per month.

On an average the Panchayat makes new purchases of various equipments and parts worth Rs. 55,000 per month for these street lights. This means in a month the Kishori Nagar Panchayat spends total Rs. 23,000 + Rs. 55,000 = Rs. 78,000 for 247 street lights. This also means that in a year the expenditure is Rs. 78,000 X 12 = Rs. 9,36,000.

This clearly shows that in a year the expenditure on each street light comes around (Rs. 9,36,000/ 247 street lights) Rs. 3,789. According to documents obtained under RTI all these purchases were made between April 2010 to April 2011.

Even a school student knows that now-a-days CFL lamp, which costs around Rs. 400, comes with one year guarantee from Manufacturers. This means for one year there is no more additional expenditure on the CFL lamp other than the initial cost of Rs. 400. For street lights the expenditure will surely be little more but of course not upto Rs. 3,789.

This means either the Management of Kishori Nagar Panchayat are naïve and purchased inferior quality materials, by mistake without following warrantee/guarantee or this is a scam. May be just a tip of an ice-berg and the matter require thorough investigation.
Andaman Sheekha Correspondent when visited the village, it has been found that half of the street lights are either damaged or under repair, even after spending so much money by the Panchayat. However, villagers complain that tube lights are replaced only after 3 or 4 months that too after several complaints.

The matter does not end here according to documents available with Andaman Sheekha (obtained through RTI) the Panchayat had purchased 16 Street Light Timers at the rate of Rs. 28,500/per piece while market rate is Rs. 7000/- to 8000/- (can be verified online).

However sources told Andaman Sheekha that till now only three timers have been installed by the Panchayat and there is only one in the Panchayat Stock. Whereabouts of rest 12 timer is not known to anyone.

The timer comes with a capacity of 1 KW, which means about 200 tube lights can be used in one same line. There are three roads in Kishori Nagar, hence three timers were enough for the village. But for reasons unknown the over-caution Panchayat purchased 16 timers and already misplaced 12 timers.

 

Trinath
Billy Ground, Nov 22: The Pradhan of Hari Nagar Panchayat of Middle Andaman has come under fire once again after publication of a news item by a local newspaper regarding a scam in the Panchayat worth nearly Rs. 57 Lakhs.
When Andaman Sheekha reporter conducted inquiry in this regard it was found that there are serious irregularities in use of public money in the Panchayat.

Even a audit team had found that purchases have been made by the said Panchayat worth Rs. 33,71,308/- without following the codal formalities for Purchases as per GPR rules.

There were Irregular Purchases of Children’s Park Equipment amounting 32,49,000/- (during the period 2006 – 2007) & 1,99,000/- (during 2007 – 2008). There was loss of Govt. Money amounting Rs. 10,02,000/- on purchase of Children Park and Fogging Machine and Fogging Chemicals. Irregularities in Stock Register and loss of revenues to the tune of Rs. 42,736/- were also found.

There was highly irregular, injudicious and wasteful expenditure on a wall Clock amounting Rs. 80,000/- and there was shortage of fogging Chemicals (477 ltrs) amounting Rs. 11,92,500/-. Altogether the audit team had found doubtful Expenditure on purchase to the tune of Rs. 57,13,408/-

However, when contacted the Present Pradhan of Hari Nagar Panchayat, Mr. Hiranmoy Roy told Andaman Sheekha that though after publication of news all guns have been pointed towards him but the fact is that all these purchases were made during the tenure of last Pradhan (2005-2010), Mrs. Uma Mistry, who hailed from Bharatiya Janta Party.

The present Pradhan also lashed out on the media house, which published the half-baked news without mentioning about the dates, when those purchases were made.

 

Though the Pradhan claims that his nose is clean but the fact remains that there was a scam in the said Panchayat and no criminal case has been registered yet against the people, who had master minded the scam.

Andaman Sheekha Correspondent has also gathered a photographs in which it is clearly visible that when the last Pradhan was questioned by the then DC, she had returned some of the materials, which were missing from stock. This is a classic example of fence eating crop.

“It seems that the Administration and Police Department has two sets of rules for ordinary citizen and politicians. The Administration must hand over the case to Anti-Corruption or CCS and arrest the person who has looted nearly Rs. 57 lakhs, which is actually public money,” said a senior citizen of Billyground.