Six persons of a village in Hemgiri block of Sundargarh district managed to get houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) illegally being hands in glove with panchayat and block officials.

Block Development Officer of Hemgiri block has written to the house grabbers to refund the amount taken for construction of house underPMAY and also issued show cause notice to the Panchayat Executive Officer and the GRS.

Sources said family of deceased Sahadeb Beheria resides in Kandadhuda village in Taparia panchayat in Hemgiri block.  The Socio Economic and Cast Census (SECC) ID of deceased Sahadeb Beheria is OR 1988892.

According to sources, Taparia Panchayat Executive Officer Surendra Singh and GRS Jayaram Pradhan had allegedly planned with a few villagers to allot house to them under PMAY in place of eligible beneficiaries.

Accordingly, one Akhila Beheria of same village was allotted a house under PMAY, mentioning him as the kin of deceased Sahadeb, without the knowledge of family members of deceased Sahadeb.

Work order was issued to  Akhila Beheria and accordingly he constructed the house and got Rs1,30,000 in four installments.

Similarly, Rabindra Sa, a resident of same village, whose SECC ID is OR 1904348. His SECC ID was used and another person of same village identified as Haladhar Sa was mentioned as his kin and was allotted house under PMAY and Haladhar got Rs1,30,000 in four installments and constructed a house in his place.

The SECC ID of Gokul Pradhan, a resident of same village, is OR 1858258. One Ranjit Pradhan of same village was allotted house under PMAY by using the ID of Gokul Pradhan and was mentioned as kin of Gokul.  Ranjit got Rs 1, 30,000 in four installments and he constructed house at his place.

Another Bruhaspati Pradhan’s SECC id is OR 1844588. As per procedure, Bruhaspati sould have been allotted a house under PMAY but another person of the same village identified as Bruhaspati Padhan was allotted house by using the SECC ID. He got the work order and also got Rs1, 30,000 in four installments and constructed a house at his place. Similarly, one Dharmendra Seth of same village was allotted house by using the SECC ID of one Pari Seth of same village.

According to sources, one deceased Iswar Tajan's SECC ID was also used and another person of same village was allotted house.

When the eligible beneficiaries and their family members came to know about the fraud, they lodged complaints before Hemgiri Block Development Officer Pradeep Dang recently.

Dang in an inquiry found that the Panchayat Executive Officer and the GRS were hand in glove with the allottees for vested interest. Dang said, “We are further inquiring if  any other officials of Panchayat or block were involved. In case anyone is found guilty, action will be taken against him/her,” Dang added.