Corruption in rural bodies exposed

Most of the irregularities were detected in Ranga Reddy, Adilabad, Siddipet and Nizamabad districts. In RR district alone, Rs 53 crore loss was detected in Kodakal and Mokila gram panchayats as they failed to take over 10 per cent lands in 14 layouts.

The auditing by state government has revealed huge financial irregularities in gram panchayats across the state, the five-year term of which expired on August 1.

It was found that the sarpanches and ward members siphoned off crores of rupees by submitting fake bills for works which are not done or claimed multiple bills for the same works.

The state audit department conducted auditing of accounts for 2016-17. The auditing was done in 8,82 gram panchayats.

The audit department has raised as many as 6,94,032 objections. The total amount involved in these irregularities amount to `399.56 crore.

Most of the irregularities were detected in Ranga Reddy, Adilabad, Siddipet and Nizamabad districts.

In RR district alone, Rs 53 crore loss was detected in Kodakal and Mokila gram panchayats as they failed to take over 10 per cent vacant lands in 14 layouts.

As per norms, in each layout, 10 per cent of vacant lands should be handed over to gram panchayat.

The audit revealed that in Laxmipur gram panchayat in Adilabad district `2.63

lakh was withdrawn from bank and in Morthad gram grampanchayat in Nizamabad district, `5.36 lakh was withdrawn but there were no records to show that where those funds were spent.

Similary in Irkode panchayat in Siddipet district, `8.03 lakh was withdrawan but no expenditure records are available.

In Patancheru gram panchayat, financial irregularities to the tune of `27.9 lakh were detected with regard to rental deposits of shops allotted by the panchayat.

In Wyra gram panchayat, `24 lakh advance was given to contractors for construction of shopping complex. But the panchayat failed to recover the amount from contractors who failed to