Residents of Sandhisachi village in Villupuram district suspect that the local administration may have siphoned off over Rs 10 lakh of government funds meant to help them build toilets. The alleged scam came to the fore after one of the villagers, Karthik, filed an RTI to glean why funds under the Swachh Bharath scheme were not released to the villagers.
The village currently has 126 residences for which 11 toilets were built during the UPA regime under the Nirmal Bharat and MGNREGA schemes. In 2017, Karthik filed an RTI demanding to know the status of the funds and why more toilets were not built. However, the reply was allegedly delayed multiple times and finally released only six months ago after an inquiry.
According to the RTI reply, state government records stated that toilets had already been built in over 100 houses in the village. And if that wasn’t shocking enough, Union government records reflected that the village had 196 houses and that toilets were built in 81 houses. A News 18 Tamil investigation revealed that some of the addresses that were mentioned in the RTI documents were either fake, or had no occupants.
“It became quite clear that this was part of an elaborate scam,” says 30-year-old Karthik, who is a software engineer. “Ideally we should be getting Rs 12,000 per house under the Swachh Bharath scheme to build these toilets. But no work in this regard had even begun,” he adds.
After Karthik confronted the local administration with the data of the records, he was allegedly subject to threats and then offers of bribe.
“They first threatened me with bodily harm if I approached the media or went to higher authorities. But I wrote to the District Collector about the issue,” says Karthik. “When the Block Divisional Officer found out he then offered me money to keep it under wraps,” he adds.
Following the complaint work has once again begun for the construction of toilets in the village, according to residents.
“We are however disappointed that no action has been taken against the officials involved in this crime,” says Karthik. “But we are afraid that if we go to the police with a complaint, even the work that has begun will stop,” he adds.
Block development officials however refused to comment on the gap between records and actual construction of toilets.
“We have taken cognisance of Karthik’s complaint and the necessary work has begun,” says a Block official. “I can’t comment on what the state and central records reflect.”
Source: The News Minute