Nagpur: A massive pension scam has come to light in Nagpur Zilla Parishad. At a time efforts are being made by Chief Executive Officer Yogesh Kumbhejkar of Zilla Parishad to prevent scams and malpractices, on the other hand, scams are coming to the fore. It has come to the fore that a junior female clerk has committed a scam worth crores by diverting the pension of deceased employees to the bank accounts of her close relatives and friends. This is going to be the biggest scam in the history of Nagpur Zilla Parishad so far, said a report in local Marathi daily Sakal.
Following the exposure of the scam, an inquiry committee was formed after suspending this female employee. It is said that this kind of fraud has been going on for the past several years.
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Sat 21 Dec. 2024
According to the report, the accused Sarita Neware, the junior clerk in the Education Department under the Parsheoni Panchayat Samiti, was handling the pension work of retirees since 2012. There are about 190 retired teachers under Parsheoni Panchayat Samiti. According to the information received, this woman had the job of handling the pension cases of the officers and employees of the Education Department. Post-retirement deceased employees were being shown as they were alive and their pension was being transferred to the accounts of her close persons, friends and relatives. This kind of nasty thing has been going on for the last seven or eight years and preliminary estimates are that the amount of the scam is in crores.
The woman concerned has been working in the same Panchayat Samiti for many years. As per rules, one employee cannot keep one table (work) for more than three to five years. Still no action was taken against this employee by BDO. It is also said that there is no leave application of this female employee even though she has been absent for months. However, no action was taken by the BDO. Therefore, doubt is being expressed on his role. When tried to speak in this regard, he avoided talking to the media.
Meanwhile, the concerned female employee was suspended. The enquiry committee constituted to investigate this matter raided the Panchayat Samiti office and seized the documents. According to the report, some of the old files were not found by the committee. Sources say that the pension of 10 to 12 deceased employees is being diverted to the accounts of female employee’s relatives. It was revealed that Neware was diverting the amount in six banks. Some of those bank accounts belonged to the woman clerk’s husband who died in 2019, herself, other family members, and acquaintances. These accounts are said to be in six different banks, the Sakal report stated.
The matter came to the fore:
In March 2022, the life certificates of all retirees were checked at P.S. level. At that time, more than thirty documents were not submitted. After that, the P.S. officers called for the documents from the concerned persons. Some of them submitted the documents. But the certificates of 10-12 people did not come. The authorities waited for 2-4 months assuming that these pensioners’ certificates would be submitted. But the documents did not come. Therefore, the pension amount was withheld. Meanwhile, the officials went to the banks of those who did not show up and got the mobile numbers and addresses. When the officials contacted, the persons turned out to be someone else.
