The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu Social Welfare Department to look into allegations that funds under various welfare schemes were sanctioned to 26 ineligible beneficiaries and take steps to recover the amount.
The First Bench of Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan passed the order on a PIL moved by Govi. Thangaraj of Thiruvallur seeking a direction to the Director of the Social Welfare Department to initiate action against the officials responsible for sanctioning funds to these persons using fabricated documents.
He alleged that K.P.S. Ilayaraja, a ward member of Thiruverkadu Municipality, had favoured his family members and friends, by misusing his official position, to avail the funds under such schemes.
Claiming that action had not been taken on the representations made by him to the authorities concerned, the petitioner had approached the High Court.
In a recent hearing, the Bench directed the department to inform the court about the action taken against erring officials in connection with the allegation.
To this, the authorities filed a detailed affidavit explaining the action taken and submitted that the amount paid to the ineligible beneficiaries was being recovered by passing orders under the Revenue Recovery Act.
Recording the submissions, the Court directed the authorities to find out whether any such incidents had occurred in 2009-13 and to take appropriate action within six months.
