Housing Minister V Somanna on Wednesday said he has ordered to prosecute 43 officers, including 25 Panchayath Development Officers (PDO’s), for their alleged involvement in the swindling of over Rs 15 crore in the Ashraya Scheme.
The minister told reporters that the housing scam was detected after receiving an anonymous complaint during his visit to Gulbarga recently.
Somanna said that the fraud was committed by creating fictitious documents for over 3,000 Ashraya houses and money was released fraudulently in five districts. “I have instructed the deputy commissioners concerned to file criminal complaint against the erring officials,” he said.
Informing that as many as 6 lakh houses under the Ashraya scheme has been sanctioned since 2010-11 and as many as 1 lakh houses has been completed. Another 2 lakh houses are in different stage of completion, he said and added that a survey would be done to verify the bona fide of the beneficiaries. “A private firm has been roped in to conduct the survey by spending over Rs 4 crore,” Somanna said.
Informing that the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) had bought over 3,000 acres of land worth over Rs 186 crore at various urban local bodies to distribute sites to house the less poor, he said that “sites would be allotted at free of cost”.
Stating that thanks to a special ‘land audit’ ordered by his department, as many as 18,000 properties worth Rs 1,310 crore belonging to KHB, which were encroached by the land grabbers, has been identified and its possession has been regained, he said.
Comments
0 comment