BALASORE: At the age of 70, Sankar Dandpat of Jharpipal village within Jaleswar police limits has not lost hope to get justice. Duped of Rs 90,000 fraudulently sanctioned in his name under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Sankar has gathered the strength to stage indefinite dharna in front of the Collectorate here from February 8 to bring the culprits to book and get his money back.
Sankar came to know of the irregularity after two government officials came inspecting his house on January 9. They apprised Sankar that the house building assistance sanctioned in his name has been withdrawn. Sankar had been sanctioned the amount for constructing a house under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). However, he alleged that village level worker Susanta Jena and gram rozgar sevak Pradipta Pradhan cheated him by opening a fake account in his name in connivance with one Sanjay Giri who is in charge of uploading documents for geotagging.
The three plotted and withdrew the amount in three installments. While Rs 20,000 was withdrawn from the account on December 22, Rs 30,000 was withdrawn on October 26 and Rs 40,000 on December 9 last year, he said. Sankar said Jena, Pradhan and Giri had collected voter id and Aadhaar card from him to complete formalities for allotment of the house in February, 2019. The officials also took his thumb impression on some documents. But after that they did not contact him.
It was on January 9 when two officials of the State government during inspection expressed shock that the house Sankar was staying in was not built under PMAY, the fraud was exposed. What shook him was the funds for the purpose were withdrawn from a bank account fraudulently opened in his name. On January 11, Sankar met Jaleswar BDO Diptiranjan Sethi and urged him to conduct a probe into the matter. He also apprised Collector K Sudarshan Chakraborty and the ADM of the issue. However, after his pleas went unheard, an undeterred Sankar decided to stage dharna in front of the Collectorate here from February 8.
Sankar had filed a complaint against Jena and Pradhan with Jaleswar police basing on which a case was registered. Jaleswar BDO Diptiranjan Sethi said Sankar had availed the first phase of assistance sanctioned to him under the housing scheme when his photograph and documents were uploaded on the required website. However, in the subsequent phases, Jena and Pradhan used a minor boy’s thumb impression for withdrawing the amounts.
The funds for construction of houses under PMAY are sanctioned on the basis of geo-tagging and photographs of the under-construction structure. Giri had allegedly uploaded the photograph of an under-construction house in another village. Jaleswar IIC Manas Deo said the case is being probed by SDPO Ankita Kumbhar.