The Hindu : Karnataka News : Official allegedly swindles money meant for Dalits

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Karnataka

Karnataka

Official allegedly swindles money meant for Dalits

Staff Correspondent

Reportedly transfers Rs. 1.45 crore to his personal account

The Ambedkar Bhavan at Kolar which houses district office of the Social Welfare Department, which is in the limelight for the wrong reasons.

KOLAR: With a senior official, who was allegedly involved in a fund misuse scam, still remaining elusive, the people are becoming more restive in the district and are preparing to wage an agitation demanding immediate arrest of the accused officer.

B.R. Panduranga, in-charge District Officer of Social Welfare Department, has allegedly swindled Government funds to the tune of about Rs. 1.45 crore. In spite of forming two teams after criminal cases were registered against the “tainted” officer, the police are yet to arrest him.

The scam is considered the “biggest” involving crores of rupees in one single incident. “The failure of the State Government to appoint an able officer at the helm of affairs in the Department is responsible for recurrence of incidents involving swindling of funds earmarked for welfare of Dalits,” says Gandhinagar Narayanswamy, State committee member of Communist Party of India (Marxist). Kolar district has the largest Dalit population in the country.

Fresh case

In the case surfaced recently, Mr. Panduranga has allegedly misused funds to the tune of Rs. 1,44,10,555 which was released by the Central and State Governments for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. A complaint lodged at the Gulpet police station here by Babu Rao Mudambi, Commissioner for Social Welfare Department, states: “Mr Panduranga has cheated the Government and Department by transferring the said amount to his personal account.”

Following this, criminal cases have been filed under Sections 408, 409 and 420 against Mr. Panduranga, said Satyanarayan Kudur, Circle Inspector of Police, who is investigating the case.

Necessary evidences were collected and two special teams have been formed to nab the accused official, Mr. Kudur told The Hindu. Since the Sessions Court here has reportedly rejected the anticipatory bail application, Mr. Panduranga is expected to move to the High Court for the same, it is learnt.

Probe sought

Since most of the corruption cases in the past were allegedly hushed up and the accused were protected, the CPI (M) district committee has demanded a Lokayukta probe into the episode.

“We will launch an agitation in this regard and take it to the logical conclusion,” said G. Arjunan, secretary of the CPI (M) district committee. The police should act more effectively to brought the accused to the book, he felt.

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