Adi Dravidar hostels turn soft targets for graft

In second such case in a week, DVAC books government servants for swindling money allocated for these students

CHENNAI: In yet another case of suspected swindling of money allotted for food and allowance for students of weaker sections of society, staying in hostels, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has booked the District Adi Dravidar Welfare Officer, Tiruvannamalai; special tahsildar, Chengam; and warden of Government Arts College Adi Dravidar Hostel on various charges.

The officers suspected to be involved in the graft are GV Parimala, District

Adi Dravidar Welfare Officer; Ramesh, special tahsildar (ADW), Chengam division; and Sivakumar, hostel warden. The DVAC believes that they have misappropriated government allocation by preparing false vouchers for the months of May and June last year.

The three officials conspired and sanctioned bills worth Rs 8.25 lakh. For the sanction, the respective hostel warden enclosed abstracts of expenditure and self-made computer printed invoices/ photocopies. The only expenditure with a proper bill provided was in the case of purchase of LPG cylinders.

As per the guidelines issued by the Director of Adi Dravidar Welfare, Chennai, all the food items, especially groceries for the upcoming month, should be calculated well in advance for a month and purchased only from the cooperative stores. The DVAC further noted that at any cost, buying of groceries in retails should be scrupulously avoided. In this case, the above guidelines were grossly violated.

The purchase of goods, except for the purchase of gas cylinder, was not properly accounted for. The hostel warden took computer printouts or photocopy of an invoice model and himself filled it up with the grocery name and price. The self-filled invoices were sent to special tahsildar for sanction of the fund and without any scrutiny, the special tahsildar passed all the bills to the tune of Rs 8,25,489 in the particular case.

On credible information, it was revealed that all the three accused colluded and prepared/forged accounts, made false entries in the stock register, and prepared bogus purchase bills, thereby claiming Rs 8,25,489 from the government exchequer of which nearly 50 per cent of the claim was bogus, the FIR said.

The genuineness of the above purchase of food items was not able to be cross-verified because it does not contain any clear address of the seller.

Stating that the above incident is only the tip of the iceberg, the DVAC said: “This has to be investigated in detail to unearth the whole conspiracy into corruption in such institutions,” the DVAC said.

Only last week the DVAC had initiated an inquiry into the swindling of money in hostels for students from backward classes and minorities in Sivagangai district.