Peon suspended on forgery charge

A peon of Barachana
block in Odisha's Jajpur district has been suspended for allegedly forging the signature of the block chairperson in connection with clearing of bills of some projects to the tune of over Rs 18 lakhs.
The peon, Suvendu Pradhan has been shifted with immediate effect from his current posting, officials said today.
Besides, two other officials of the block concerned- Additional Block Development Officer (ABDO) Santosh Kumar Satapathy and cashier Kailash Chandra Das - have been issued show cause notices for the scam, they said.
"I have suspended peon of the block, while ABDO and cashier of the block have been issued show cause notices in connection with the episode," said Jajpur district Collector Anil Kumar Samal.

The collector has also directed the Barachana Block Development Officer (BDO) Gopabandhu Bhusagar to examine all siganaturs of the chairperson in all passed bills and financial documents since May of this year.

As per the rule, the bill of the project over Rs 2 lakh should be cleared or passed by the chairperson of the concerned block for payment. Hence, eight projects of the Barachana block worth over Rs 18 lakhs required signature of the chairperson to clear the bill, sources said.
But, bills of all these eight projects were cleared without the knowledge and signature of the chairperson. Getting a tip off, chairperson of the Barachana block Sukamani Purty brought the matter to the notice of the district collector last week, they said.

Collector Samal then constituted a committee headed by Additional Project director of District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) Sarat Chandra Biswal to inquiry into the matter. Inquiry report found that the peon of the block had forged the signature of the chairperson, they said.
Basing on the inquiry report, district collector suspended the peon and issued show cause notices to other two officials of the block, sources added.