Panchayat head swindles Rs 49 lakh, held

COIMBATORE: Sleuths attached to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) have booked the panchayat president of Maruthur for misappropriating 49 lakh from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme.
A DVAC sleuth said they registered a case against R Poornima, 40, of Pungampalayam village, under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, based on a complaint lodged by DVAC inspector C Latha on Tuesday. “We received information that she had misappropriated the money that was released under the scheme in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years. Our inquiry revealed that she had distributed job cards to ineligible people. One of the beneficiaries mentioned in the list had died 40 years ago. Two were her brothers. Another seven were having either government or private jobs.”
While Poornima issued job cards to 1,878 beneficiaries, 319 of them were ineligible.