Aurangabad, Jan 27:
The Aurangabad division bench of the Bombay High Court has taken cognizance about the alleged embezzlement of Rs 20 crores in the Beed Panchayat Samiti. The hearing on the this petition in this regard was held recently and the bench comprising Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Ravindra Ghuge ordered the Beed District Collector to conduct an inquiry and submit a report in this regard.
Rajkumar Deshmukh and others submitted a petition in the division bench against the large scale embezzlement in the wells distribution issue at the Beed Panchayat Samiti. In this case, funds were shown spend for digging the wells for the people who had never applied for the scheme. Even the names of the deceased persons were also shown as applicants, this fact was brought to the notice of the court.
Moreover, cash distribution has been prohibited still cash was given to the beneficiaries. Around Rs 20 crores have been allegedly embezzled in the panchayat samiti, and hence, the petitioners have requested that an inquiry should be conducted and the cases should be filed against the responsible persons.
The HC directed that inquiry should be done that how much funds the central government has provided to Maharashtra in MANREGA scheme during 2011 and 2019, funds were utilized on which works, details of the cash transactions, expenditure on the salaries to the labourers, funds given in the name of the deceased farmers and the affidavits submitted by the farmers.
During the hearing, the government pleader told the court that the government has not made any rules in this regard and hence, the bench ordered that the Beed District Collector should inquire the above mentioned issues and submit a report in eight weeks.
Adv Girish Thigale Naik appeared for the petitioners, Adv D R Kale for the state government and Adv A G Talhar for the central government.