The State government announced setting up of a House committee in the Legislative Council to probe and suggest action against those involved in the fixed deposit (FD) scam that rocked the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) in 2015. About ₹686 crore meant to be used for crucial drinking water schemes in rural areas was illegally kept in fixed deposits by officials.
The announcement from RDPR Minister K.S. Eshwarappa on Friday came after members cutting across all parties alleged that attempts were being made to cover up the scam, with officials charged with irregularities getting away from law.
Raising the issue, BJP member Raghunath Rao Malkapure, quoting the written answer provided by the Minister, said officials had been let off, and there was no accountability for misusing the money meant for providing water. Quoting from the written reply of the Minister, he said, “The police have filed a ‘B’ report with respect to retired KAS officer P. Bore Gowda; B.S. Rayageri, who has now retired, was reinstated, and suspension of Ramakrishna has been revoked as chargesheet was not issued. The police have filed a ‘B’ report even in the case of Ramakrishna.”
Replying to Mr. Malkapure, the Minister said the 2015 report filed by IFS officer P. Sridhar had confirmed that the State and Central funds that came to the Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation Department under the NRDW projects had been kept in other 106 accounts to a tune of ₹685.99 crore, which was later taken back and spent on drinking water projects. “Except for two accounts, all other accounts have been closed,” the Minister’s written reply stated. A committee headed by S.B Shivarudrappa was in the process of re-appropriation of accounts, it stated.
Though Mr. Eshwarappa said the government was ready to investigate the matter and place the two probe reports in the House, members said there was no need to investigate again since two committees had done it already. They said that since no action could be initiated nor the losses could be recovered from officials four years after their retirement, the matter required urgent attention.
Yielding to the members’ demand, the Minister announced setting up of the House committee.
‘Dummy account’
“You cannot find an account like this in the world,” Mr. Eshwarappa said on Friday, referring to a bank account opened in the name of “dummy”.
“There was no proposer before the account was opened in SyndicateBank. A sum of ₹496 crore was kept in the account and that too without approval,” he said. Further, Mr. Eshwarappa said that while the government was to have received ₹285 crore as interest on about ₹686 crore kept in fixed deposits, the bank is now offering only ₹84 crore. “The Finance Department has been asked to hold discussion with the bank to sort out the matter,” the Minister said.
₹2,000 crore in FDs
While the fixed deposit (FD) scam had come in the Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation Department earlier, ₹2,008.59 crore is currently kept in FD by various agencies in the RDPR Department. While the Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd. has kept ₹1,255.55 crore, the Karnataka Rural Road Development Agency has FD of ₹721.26 crore. Other institutions are the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Rural Energy and Development (₹4.84 crore), Abdul Nazeer Sab State Institute of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj — Administrative Training Institute (₹5 crore), Panchayat Raj Engineering Department (₹21 crore), and Karnataka State Bioenergy Development Board (₹94 lakh).
The written reply said that an investment committee has been set up in the KRIDL and FD is made in the name of the managing director, and similarly, FD is in the name of the department head in other agencies.
