QUEPEM: A complaint was filed with the Block Development Officer,Dharbandora, on Saturday alleging a scam at the Kirlapal-Dabhal village panchayat, wherein 28 fake house tax receipts were issued to people. This amounts to fraud not only on the panchayat but also on the poor people who had paid their house tax.
It may be recalled that on December 26, a similar complaint was lodged with the Assistant Director of Panchayat, where it was pointed out that this was the second time the same person was committing this scam.
On Saturday, when the people came to submit the complaintto the BDO, he was not present and hence the complaint was given to his office.
Shanker Bhandari pointed out that a similar scam had occurred in 2017 when NareshBandekar, who was working as a clerk in the panchayat, had admitted his ‘mistake’ and after asking him to work at the BDO’s office for some time, he was sent again to the panchayat to work as a clerk to repeat his previous crime.
“The authorities are responsible for the repeat of the same scam as they failed to take necessary action against him in the past and he now thinks that he can continue doing the same thing,” said Shanker.He alleged that the clerk responsible for this scam enjoys political patronage and hence does not fear the law, nor abides by it.
Shankeralso said that the KirlapalDabal panchayat is deserted at present as there is no clerk nor secretary there and even the Sarpanch is not available. “It is the people who suffer due to the absence of these people in the panchayat as no work can be done of the people,” he said.
“Many applications for the Atal Asra Scheme are cancelled due to the fake house tax receipts given to the people by the staff at the panchayat,” said Jayesh Patil, Sanvordem Congress Block President.
