Around 200 Bihar officials punished for graft in welfare schemes: Minister

Around 200 gazetted officers of the Bihar Rural Development Department have been punished with transfers and stoppage of increments for their alleged involvement in massive corruption in welfare schemes, minister Shravan Kumar said on Friday. Punitive action against the erring officials was taken in the last few months after widespread malpractices like enrolment of ineligible people and transfer of crores of rupees into bogus accounts under flagship schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (housing) and Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal (piped water connection) came to light in the last few years, the rural development minister said.

"There is no place for corruption in our government. We have initiated departmental action/proceedings against those erring gazetted officers of the Rural Development Officer cadre of the Bihar Public Service Commission, and supervisory officers, for dereliction of duty.

"Departmental inquiry in certain cases was pending for several years. Senior officials have been asked to finalise the disciplinary proceedings against the erring officers at the earliest," Kumar told PTI.

Documents accessed by PTI revealed that the Social Security Pension Scheme hadn't even rolled out in Madhepur block of Madhubani district in 2019, and in Punpun block of Patna district in 2018.

The department found out irregularities in the distribution of hot cooked meals to children in Kurtha block of Arwal district in 2019, construction of private schools on government land in Madhubani's Harlakhi in 2014, not recovering funds worth lakhs of rupees transferred to wrong accounts under Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal Scheme in Lakhisarai's Suryagadh, and advance withdrawal of Rs 49.27 lakh by officials from the treasury without following guidelines in Lakhisarai in 2020.

It also found that ineligible people were allegedly allotted houses under PMAY in Sahebganj, Marwan and Aurai blocks of Muzaffarpur district in 2018. Disciplinary action was recommended against the officials concerned.