Mangalore : Chairing a district-level vigilance and monitoring committee meeting at Zilla Panchayat on Thursday Nov6 MP Nalin Kumar Kateel said, the complaints over misuse of government housing schemes by beneficiaries, has directed the department officials to conduct an enquiry into the issue and submit a report to the deputy commissioner.

Kateel said that he was aware of at least 10 such cases in the district where the beneficiaries of Basava Vasathi and Indira Awas Scheme had sold their houses to others. The beneficiaries have handed over their house agreement copy to others and have received cash in return, he said.

Elaborating one such instance, the MP said that a beneficiary had not only sold the house built under the scheme to another person, but also got another house sanctioned for himself under a housing scheme. He could easily get the second house sanctioned due to the assistance of a local elected representative, the MP said.

He directed the officials to submit a report on the misuse of housing schemes by beneficiaries and submit the report to the deputy commissioner’s office, followisng which a committee chaired by the Deputy Commissioner would take an appropriate action.

However, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Tulasi Maddineni directed the officials to file cases against those who have violated the norms.

PWD Executive Engineer A G Dharmaraj said that the department will commence the concretising work of Shiradi Ghat from December 1.

The department had decided to concretise 13.62 km stretch on the bottom portion of Shiradi Ghat and asphalt 21 km road from Gulagale and Heggadde and 12 km road from Heggadde to Addahole.

But, the Central government has instructed to concretise the 12 km stretch at a cost of Rs 85.28 crore.

Contractors will start the work in December and the completion might take 18 months duration, he said.

Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim who took exception to 18 months duration, said that the district administration had decided to close the road from December 1 to May 30 and the ghat can not be closed for vehicular movement for a longer period.

While reviewing the progress of multi-village water scheme in the district, the MP asked the zilla panchayat engineering division as to why Hyderabad contractor who was blacklisted in the past was given the contract of vented dam work at Kinnigoli.

There are complaints of dam already having leakages which proves the low quality of work. He demanded the official to submit a report on the progress of the work within 15 days.

The official said that steps have been taken to rectify the loopholes and the work will be completed by June.