ADILABAD: A majority of the Chief Minister Relief Fund (CMRF) cheques in the erstwhile Adilabad district has been reportedly lapsing due to the negligence and misuse by local leaders, resulting in victims facing difficulties in accessing relief funds.
According to sources, in Jannaram mandal, more than 40 CMRF cheques have lapsed, which were issued before the Assembly elections. Victims allege that local leaders failed to distribute the funds before the election code came into force, leading to the cheques expiring.
People say that even after the formation of the Congress government in the state, leaders did not take steps to extend the validity of these cheques with the section concerned in Hyderabad.
Besides this, there have been instances of CMRF cheques being misused by a few local leaders. For instance, it was reported that an MPTC member in Jannaram mandal, who had won two elections, reportedly drew a relief fund cheque in another person’s name with the same surname and distributed the amount among local leaders. Upon learning about the withdrawal, victims confronted the MPTC member, who then returned the amount. Such cases occurred during the previous BRS government.
Another point highlighted by the victims was that they applied for the CMRF with complete expenditure information from the hospital, including their Aadhaar card details. However, they alleged that some cheques only contain initials rather than full surnames since a few leaders exploit this process by searching for individuals with matching surnames to withdraw and divide the funds.
Despite their efforts, victims are struggling to obtain CMRF cheques.
Victims are appealing to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to distribute CMRF cheques through mandal-level officials to prevent irregularities, similar to the distribution process of Kalyan Laxmi and Shaadi Mubarak cheques.
It has also been learnt that the government intends to appoint an inquiry into the withdrawal and lapses of CMRF cheques, investigating any irregularities that may have occurred.
After collecting details, the cheques will be distributed to the victims and action will be taken against those found to have misused the funds.