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| Unauthorized withdrawal of funds: RD&PR Deptt to reinstate 13 officers | | | Saahil Suhail
Early Times Report
Srinagar, July 14: The Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj is all set to reinstate the thirteen (13) officers who they had placed under suspension allegedly for unauthorised withdrawal of developmental funds.
Highly placed sources told Early Times that the Advisor to Lieutenant Governor Baseer Ahmad Khan has cleared the file and the reinstatement order of the officers will come out in a few days.
“It is now just a matter of a few days. The Government has understood the case completely so the officers will be reinstated this week or after a few days,” a senior officer told Early Times.
He also claimed that the Advisor to Lieutenant Governor Baseer Ahmad Khan has also cleared the file and recommended that the officers be reinstated at an earliest.
Important to mention here, Early Times the first newspaper in Jammu and Kashmir to report the actual position.
While the government claimed that these officers had withdrawn funds from e-FMS (Electronic Financial Management System) accounts without any authorization, however the fact is that Block development Officers and Assistant Commissioner Development Officers don’t have any direct role in releasing the payment as the Government itself empowered the PRI’s and authorized them to release the payments.
In 2019, the Administrative Secretary to Rural Development Department (RDD) Sheetal Nanda (IAS) issued a notification [Government Order No. 207-RD&PR of 2019 dated 04-07-2019] and detailed how to release Mahatma Gandhi NAREGA funds by Halqa Panchayat as mandated in schedule 1-A of Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act 1989. The guidelines, according to this government order, were approved by the State Administrative Council (SAC) [Decision No.152/17/2019 dated 03-07-2019].
According to this notification, the Panchayat Secretary has been designated as Signatory 1 and Sarpanch has been designated as Signatory 2. In absence of an elected Sarpanch, Block Development Officer (BDO) will act as Signatory 2, reads the notification.
The notification says that Signatory 1 (Panchayat Secretary) shall check the attendance of the wage list generated and after due verification send it to signatory 2 (Sarpanch) on the same day without any fail for payments.
The Signatory 2 (Sarpanch), notification says, shall after due verification push the FTO to the bank for disbarment of wages to wage seekers if the funds are available.
The RDD officials said that under Electronic Fund Management System (e-FMS), the Sarpanchs have been provided digital signature (DSC’s) for drawing funds for disbursement directly from e-FMS accounts being maintained at Secretariat Level.
“Under e-FMS, the funds are directly transferred from the state e-FMS account maintained at Secretariat level to the individual beneficiary account electronically and no intermediate account below state e-FMS account is required. The signatory 1 and 2 at Panchayat level directly draw funds through digital signature (DSC) from state e-FMS account and transfer to the individual beneficiary account as maintained in the Act.,” reads notification, a copy of which lies with Early times.
Now, the RDD officers are demanding that they be given some powers to supervise the release of payments to avoid any kind of violations. |
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