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A viral bill in Shahdol’s Patera Tola showed 2,500 bricks at Rs 1.25 lakh, sparking outrage and a probe into fake bills and corruption in multiple Madhya Pradesh gram panchayats.
A bill for 2,500 bricks at a cost of Rs 1.25 lakh accepted by a panchayat in Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol district has gone viral. (X)
In a bizarre incident, a bill for 2,500 bricks at an unimaginable cost of Rs 1.25 lakh was approved by a gram panchayat in Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol for the construction of the boundary wall of an anganwadi building in Patera Tola.
The bill, in the name of Chetan Prasad Kushwaha of Peribahara village, and allegedly passed with the collusion of the Sarpanch and the Panchayat Secretary, has gone viral on social media platforms for its eye-popping claims, News18 Hindi reported.
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As per the now viral bill, each brick costs the panchayat Rs 50, which is nearly ten times the normal price.
Meanwhile, the Shahdol district administration has ordered a probe. District collector Kedar Singh has directed cluster-level officers to inspect 10-12 panchayats daily to check whether such bills are due to negligence or deliberate fraud, the report added.
Meanwhile, villagers have expressed their outrage over the frequent instances, saying that till the time high-level and strict action is not taken, such acts of corruption will not stop in the panchayats.
This is not the first case. Even before this, government money has been misused by passing fake bills in the panchayats of the district.
A few days ago, a bill of Rs 4,000 was issued for photocopying just two pages in Kudri Gram Panchayat of Jaisinghnagar Panchayat Samiti, located in the Shahdol Zila Parishad.
In July, in Bhadhwahi village, according to the bills, 14 kg of dry fruits, 30 kg of namkeen, and 9 kg of fruits were consumed during a one-hour Jal Ganga Samvardhan Abhiyan (promotion campaign).
Earlier, an amount of Rs 1.07 lakh was allegedly withdrawn after an unimaginable 168 labourers and 65 masons were employed to apply just four litres of paint on a single wall of a government school in the district’s Sakandi village.
In a similar incident in another school of Nipania village, the same private contractor, Sudhakar Constructions, raised another bill worth Rs 2.3 lakh to carry out the task of applying 20 litres of paint, installing ten windows, and fitting four doors, the media reports said.
According to bills, which were circulating online, 168 labourers and 65 masons were employed to paint the wall of the school in Sakandi village, and for the one in Nipania, manpower of 275 labourers and 150 masons was used. However, ground-level reports suggested that there aren’t even that many labourers or masons in and around the two villages concerned.
About the Author
Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben…Read More
Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben… Read More
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Shahdol, India, India
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