Six engineers of Raibag Taluk have been found guilty of corrupt practices causing a loss of more than Rs.25 lakh to the government while implementing drinking water supply schemes for the anganwadi centres in the taluk.
Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Gautam Bagadi, on Tuesday, issued an order confirming that the six engineers were guilty of involving in corrupt practices while providing drinking water supply connections to the 219 anganwadi centres under the National Rural Drinking Water Project during 2013-14. While passing the orders, Mr. Bagadi directed the Executive Engineer, Karnataka Rural Drinking Water & Sanitation Department, to recover the amount to the extent of the loss caused to the government from the guilty engineers and also put remarks in their service records.
The engineers found guilty of corrupt practices are Junior Engineers S.B. Sajjan, S.B. Bhajantri and S.B. Maisale; and Assistant Engineers S.B. Pawar, S.B. Badiger and K.N. Hanchinmani, who had been already promoted recently as Assistant Executive Engineer.
According to the order, these engineers had caused loss to the tune of Rs.25.63 lakh by cutting short the length of the PVC pipes from the source. Totally, the length of the pipelines was shortened by 10,267.90 metres, causing loss of Rs.249.70 per metre length of the pipe.
‘An eyewash’
Bhimappa Gadad, a RTI activist, who had unearthed the irregularities a couple of years ago, said the punishment to the guilty engineers was essentially an ‘eyewash’ as the ZP CEO ordered only recovery of the funds instead of taking any disciplinary action and booking a criminal case against them. The CEO was sitting on the inquiry report for long and dilly-dallying on taking action until Deputy Commissioner N. Jayaram took serious note of the irregularity and delay in action against the guilty, Mr.Gadad said.
