Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Vigilance on Wednesday arrested two engineers from Kotagarh block in Kandhamal district for allegedly misappropriating more than Rs 42 lakh in funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.
The arrested officials are Prasanta Kumar Patra, Assistant Engineer (AE), and Prafulla Kumar Behera, Junior Engineer (JE).
According to a Vigilance release, the arrests followed a detailed probe into the execution of the Amrit Sarovar pond project and other rural development works in Dharakote gram panchayat. It was found that the engineers had facilitated the release of Rs 49.83 lakh for works carried out between the financial years 2023-24 and 2025-26, even though the actual value of work executed on the ground was only Rs 7.42 lakh. A joint team conducted physical verification and technical inspection of the sites, revealing a massive gap between the claimed expenditure and the reality on the ground.
According to the investigation, over Rs 42 lakh was allegedly siphoned off by the accused without corresponding development work being done. The MGNREGA guidelines, which mandate digital geo-tagging of project sites at different stages before any payments can be processed, was also violated. In this case, no geo-tagged photographs were uploaded for the projects.
A case has been registered at Berhampur Vigilance police station against the accused under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2018, and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Further investigation is underway, it added.
