BENGALURU: The scam involving illegal parking of government money in private banks has got murkier with the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Department unearthing another `550-crore hoard.
The money was parked illegally in 101 accounts in the Syndicate Bank branch at the office of the BWSSB on KG Road, Bengaluru.
With this, the amount parked illegally in various banks almost touches a whopping `2,000 crore. The department had earlier found `1,335-crore parked in various banks. The money belongs to Rural Water Supply Department that comes under RDPR department.
RDPR Minister H K Patil on Wednesday told reporters that a tip-off from a private person helped the department track down the huge money parked in the Syndicate branch at the BWSSB office. “While there are 101 bank accounts, a major portion of the money has been parked in two accounts. While `495 crore is parked in one account, another account has `44 crore. These deposits were made during 2010-11,” Patil said.
A panel headed by Punati Sridhar, executive director of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Rural Energy and Development, had recently submitted its final report on the scam and had said `1,335 crore had been parked illegally in various banks. At that time, the officials concerned had filed written statements before the committee that there were no accounts other than those found by the committee.
“But today’s revelation shows that the officials had misled the committee,” Patil said adding that he had formed a special team to look into the sources from where the money came, withdrawal made, if any, and also transactions in these accounts. A team headed by Shivarudrappa, Additional Controller of State Accounts, will also audit the accounts of the department.
The department is likely to file criminal cases against erring officials. When asked what action the government is proposing against officials who are responsible for such illegal acts, the minister said, “Wait for 48 hours to know our next step of action.”