In a travesty of the ethos of panchayati raj, as many as 227 panchayat mukhias in Bihar have been found to have made illegal profits from a public welfare scheme in collusion with government officials and are therefore facing arrest.
Even as Bihar prepares to hold panchayat elections across the state in April and May, the arrest warrants issued against all the 227 mukhias in the northern district of Sitamarhi by the CJM’s court there on Monday came as bad news for a state where the panchayats have sometimes been dubbed as the engines of local development. But the alleged `40-crore scam in the purchase of solar lamps to illuminate villages in Sitamarhi was too big to escape notice.
With the police ready to arrest the 227 mukhias, it now seems they may have to seek re-election in the upcoming polls from behind the bars.
Two of these mukhias in Sursand block were arrested as they arrived to file their nomination papers on Tuesday. While all the 232 mukhias in Sitamarhi were named in the FIR in 2010, four have died since. Sources said nearly 200 officials, including BDOs and panchayat secretaries, are also likely to face arrest in the coming days for the scam.
While the state government had approved Tata BP solar plates and Excide batteries for the village illumination project, the mukhias used the `4 to `5 lakhs allotted to each panchayat to purchase sub-standard solar plates and batteries manufactured locally. But all these equipment bore the logos of Tata BP and Excide. The mukhias had also managed to get fake purchase bills of both these companies. A raid by the police on the house of one supplier of the fake equipment, Ashok Kumar, on October 30 2010 brought to light the fake bills and many incriminating documents related to the scam. This followed an FIR being registered against the mukhias.