Toilet scam spreads
The Telegraph
Ramashankar and Roshan Kumar
November 10, 2017
Patna: The toilet construction scam is not just limited to Patna, with complaints of financial embezzlement to the tune of Rs 3.67 crore coming in from Sheohar district.
An FIR has been lodged with the Piprahi police station in Sheohar by the executive engineer in the public health and engineering department (PHED), Manish Kumar. Former mukhiya of Piprahi panchayat, Dharmendra Kumar Singh, and ward member Hari Kishore Rai are among those named accused.
Rai has been arrested and sent to jail.
Sheohar superintendent of police Prakash Nath Mishra said the case had been registered on the basis of a report submitted by officials who conducted an investigation into the construction of toilets under the centrally sponsored Swachh Bharat Mission (rural) and state government-run Lohia Swachhta Yojna schemes.
A total of 3,065 toilets were to be constructed for which a sum of Rs 3.67 crore was released during 2015-16.
A special investigation team, headed by deputy superintendent (town), S.H. Hashmi, has already been set up by Patna police to investigate the alleged siphoning off of government funds to the tune of Rs 15 crore meant for construction of toilets in the district.
Preliminary investigation has revealed that money was transferred to the accounts of four Patna-based NGOs - Adi Shakti Seva Sansthan (Patna), Maa Sarveshwari Seva Sansthan (Bakhtiyarpur), Satyam Shivam Kala Kendra (Patna) and Shiv Seva Sansthan (Maner) - to siphon off the funds.
The highest amount of Rs 10.3 crore had been transferred to the accounts of Adi Shakti Seva Sansthan run by Uday Singh (Nawada), Suman Singh (Nalanda) and Manoj Kumar (Bakhtiyarpur).
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