Monday, June 27 2005 16:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: "Wanted" flood-relief scam accused and senior IAS officer, Gautam Goswami, is in for more trouble as another criminal case is likely to be registered against him in connection with alleged misappropriation of Rs 1.52 crore meant for Swarna Jayanti Swarojgar Yojana (SJSRY) and National Slum Development Programme (NSDP).

Deputy Development Commissioner (DDC), Patna, Sridhar Cherivolu who is officiating as Patna district magistrate, has submitted a report to Chief Secretary G S Kang and Rural Development Secretary K C Saha highlighting the irregularities in execution of the schemes, official sources said on condition of anonymity.

The DDC got the inquiry conducted by the district planning officer Diwakar Mandal and three other officers into alleged misappropriation of Government money following instructions by State rural development secretary.

The inquiry revealed that Rs 76 lakh meant for SJRSY and almost an equal amount for NSDP (Housing) was misappropriated between June and September 2004 when Goswami was the district magistrate.

The report says that the Urban Development Department had allotted Rs 69.63 lakh to the District Urban Development Agency (DUDA), Patna on March 25, 2004 for distribution among 11 urban local bodies in the district during 2004-05.

Instead the money was given to 17 non-Government organisations (NGOs) for giving vocational training to people below the poverty line.

"Neither any criterion was laid down for selection of the NGOs nor were their credentials verified before releasing the funds to them, the report says.

"The NGOs, most of which were non-existent, neither submitted details of the expenditure nor any list of the people trained by them to the authorities concerned," it says.

A field inquiry also revealed that most of the NGOs given huge funds were traceless and some of the NGOs that could be traced had not organised any training programmes.

A few of the NGOs did arrange training programmes but the training imparted was of token nature and none of the trainees was paid a single farthing, the report says.

Goswami has been declared, "wanted" by the State vigilance bureau probing the multi-crore flood-relief scam.