As people continued to suffer due to water crisis in summers, it was later found that the project had not been completed as claimed by the authorities concerned.
Jajpur: The Odisha Lokayukta has found three officials of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS), Jajpur Division guilty of being involved in irregularities in a drinking water project in the district. In a judgement today, the anti-corruption watchdog pulled up former executive engineer Amiya Kumar Parija, assistant executive engineer (estimator) Sanjukta Sahu and former accountant Lalkrushna Bastia for their role in tender fixing. The judgement was pronounced by Lokayukta chairperson Ajit Singh and members Debabrata Swain (former PCCF ) and Rajendra Sharma (former Police DG).
As per reports, a drinking water project had been taken up in Gengutia of Kamaguda panchayat under Dharmasala block for which a budget of Rs 77. 57 lakh had been estimated. In April 2019, when the work was touted to be finished, the RWSS authorities in an RTI query had shared that Rs 52,57 lakh had been spent on the project.
However, as people continued to suffer due to water crisis in summers, it was later found that the project had not been completed as claimed by the authorities concerned. This had prompted RTI activist Sarbeswar Behura to take up the matter and approach the Lokayukta in this regard.