Berhampur: Odisha vigilance on Wednesday arrested two engineers in Kandhamal district’s Kotagarh block for over Rs 42 lakh fraud in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).Prasant Kumar Patra (44), assistant engineer, and Prafulla Kumar Behera (40), junior engineer in the block, for allegedly misappropriating over Rs 42 lakh without execution of the different projects, including ponds under the Amrit Sarovar and some other development works in Dharakot panchayat in Kotagarh block during three-year period from 2023-24 to 2025-26.The district administration had suspended Sutanay Mahakuda and Kansiram Digal, panchayat executive officer (PEO) and additional data entry operator, respectively, of the panchayat in the fraud last month. The administration has written to the govt against the concerned sarapanch and two engineers for their involvement in the fraud and to take appropriate action.Sources said Behera deposited over Rs 7.74 lakh when the district administration issued the recovery notices to the accused. “We came to know Behera has deposited the money in response to our notice before the BDO. But we have not received any information officially,” said SN Nandi, chief executive officer, Kandhamal zilla parishad. Vigilance insiders said physical verification and technical inspections were conducted by the anti-corruption agency to assess the ground reality of the projects. The findings exposed the disparity between the paper and actual work on the spot. The official records showed an amount of Rs 49,83,995 was fully processed and paid out for the projects.The technical evaluation has revealed that the actual work was executed of Rs 7,42,357, while a major portion of the project involving over Rs 42 lakh was allegedly misappropriated, vigilance sources said.Under the MGNREGA guidelines, the digital geo-tagging of a site at various stages of completion was mandatory before any financial bills were cleared. In this case, no geo-tagged photographs were ever captured or uploaded, said vigilance in a press note.The state vigilance has registered a case against two engineers of the Kotagarh block under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2018, and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
