TIRUPPUR: Details of petitions submitted to the district administration at the collectorate have allegedly leaked out. This came to light when an imposter collected money from a woman in Avinashi showing her original petition seeking a house.
Speaking to TNIE, M Madana (40) the victim, said, "I am working as a housekeeper in a garment unit in Tiruppur city. I received a telephone call from a person who claimed to be an official in the Collectorate. He said I was allotted a house in the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board tenement and asked to meet near Pushpa Theatre Bus Stand (Tiruppur Railway Station). I arrived at the location and met him. The person claimed that he got a housing allotment for my petition and demanded Rs 2,500 as deposit. When I questioned the validity, he showed my original petition seeking house allotment submitted on September 20."
"Besides, he also showed several petitions submitted on the same day. I gave him Rs 2,000 and returned to my office. When I informed my husband Murugan about the issue, he suspected something was wrong and asked me to go to Tiruppur Collectorate to verify the allotment. I inquired with officials in Social Service Scheme Department and to my utter shock, found none were allowed to collect money for such a scheme. I have written a complaint and submitted it to the officials," she added.
According to an official from District Administration, the petitions are collected every day, apart from weekly grievance day (Monday). They are segregated by the department of social service scheme, based on the need of the service - Free patta land, drinking water supply, house allotment, street lighting, drainage system. Later, they are redirected to a particular department - Municipality, Health Department, PWD department, or Revenue Department. But under the supervision of the top official. Several thousand petitions are currently pending in various departments, besides, rejected petitions are kept separately. Nobody can take out the rejected petitions from the facility without permission from the District Administration. Approved petitions are also kept safe for future reference. Almost all the petitions are documented and computerized by social services and other departments, which received them. But, in this case, we couldn't judge whether it is selected, rejected or approved petition.
Speaking to TNIE, Tiruppur District Collector Dr S Vineeth said, "Leakage of the alleged grievance petition is a serious issue. I will check with the officials about the documents from the respective department. Severe action will be taken and we will launch a complaint in cybercrime on the incident."