Bengaluru: In a first, the rural development and panchayat raj (RDPR) department has returned Rs 612 crores to the state exchequer.
The amount was part of a Rs 1, 335 crore-scam with officials adopting the same modus operandi as the top brass of Satyam Computer Services Ltd to parking funds allocated for rural water supply scheme in unauthorized bank accounts during the previous BJP government.
A FIR has been registered and a fresh audit of the department’s accounts ordered to trace another Rs 495 crores secreted away to one bank account in a similar manner in 2010-2011, RDPR minister H K Patil told DC.
He said officials had mismanaged Rs. 4,500 crores during 2009–15 by allocating projects through a committee of bureaucrats though a formal approval for such a committee was accorded by the Governor in December 2014. Multiple accounts were opened for the same scheme in violation of rules with officials ignoring regulations that unspent funds should be returned to the state treasury or the Union government, he added.
Mr Patil said an investigation into unspent funds deposited in various banks revealed that such large sums did not accrue any interest resulting in loss of Rs 50-60 crores to the government.
