Ex-Collector Rayagada Parul Patwari, IAS under scanner: RDC’s investigation on financial mismanagement to the tune of Rs. 18 crores
Rayagada (Badal Tah): Southern Revenue Division Commissioner(RDC), Brahmapur Sri Sangram Keshari Mahapatra, IAS, during a three day visit to Rayagada, has recently completed his primary investigation on complain against Ms Parul Patwari, Ex-Collector, Rayagada & present Director, Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) Department regarding purchase of equipments for tribal residential schools managed by ST & SC Development(SSD) Department, Govt of Odisha at Rayagada. The complain was made by none other than District Welfare Officer(DWO) Asima Rao, who did not budge to the pressure from Parul to procure sub-standard equipments amounting Rs. 1,31,44, 400 at almost double the price of EPM rate from a proxy agency with shady involvement of Parul’s husband. Asima also alleged about Parul asking hefty amounts of gratification from district level officers through her agent Govt Section Officer Rama Chandra Sahu. Parul Patwari couldn’t even complete one year tenure as Rayagada Collector and amidst controversy, was transferred to SSEPD Department at Bhubaneswar. RDC, Brahmapur has inspected concerned files, documents and interacted with Asima & present Rayagada Collector Asutosh Kulkarni.
During Parul’s short tenure, the district witnessed two serious incidents of illegal adoption of children. The most ironic thing is that no action was taken even after 24 days of an institution writing a letter informing her about the allegations of illegal adoption and child sale in Bhulusunda, Gunapur sub-division. She did not respond to the problems of divyangs in Rayagada for which the aggrieved PwDs had to stage a mass protest in front of Collector’s office.
Unfortunately she is in news now for a bad reason. Adivasis have made an allegation of serious financial irregularities worth Rs.16.5 crores against her. Recently tribal leaders namely Zilla Parishad President Saraswati Majhi, Ex-Special Development Council(SDC) Chairperson Anusuya Majhi, Ex-Tribal Minister Jagannath Saraka & Ex-MP–cum- State SDC Advisor Pradip Majhi, in a press conference convened by BJD, revealed that around Rs.4 crores have been siphoned off out of Rs.5,39,87,889 in procurement of 300 sets of musical instruments and sports equipments. According to Pradip Majhi, the onus of this serious financial irregularities is squarely vested with the then Collector Parul Patwari. District unit of BJP & Adibasi Mahasangha have demanded a vigilance enquiry of Rs.12 crores spent during the tenure of Anusuya Majhi as SDC Chairperson.
It may be noted that Government of Odisha set up Special Development Councils (SDC) for 9 Tribal dominated districts including Rayagada in the year 2017. During 2023, Government of Odisha expanded the SDC to 23 districts by adding 14 new districts. In an unstarred question no. 2524 in Lok Sabha answered on 13.03.2025, the minister of Tribal Affairs GOI told that it had no provision of funds to support and enhance this state initiative. However, under the SDC Scheme, the District allocation for each SDC is provided by the State Government in shape of Grant-in-Aid, which is determined on the basis of number of blocks in district. The allocation for nine Phase-I SDCs is @1.50 Crores per block. As Rayagada has 11 blocks, it received a grant of Rs.16.5 crores.
Though the present State Government dissolved all the 23 SDCs on 4-9-2024 vide letter no–18466, the said procurement from Odisha Consumers Cooperative Federation(OCCF) at Cuttack was done on 3.2.2025, ie, almost after 5 months of scrapping of SDC.
“During tenure of Swadhadeb Singh, Ex-Collector-cum-CEO, SDC, Rayagada, the equipments were ordered without specification. So, logically the then Ex-Collector Rayagada Singh was also involved in corruption including Anusuya Majhi and other Council Members. One of the Ex-SDC members has also told about his ignorance of the decisions and resolutions by Ex-SDC-Chairperson Anusuya. The nefarious decisions of the then Collector need to be examined. As Govt order dissolving SDC, the parent organization, dated 4-9-2024 will supersede all the previous orders, resolutions and Dos & SDCs are scrapped state wide, reconstitution of new SDC does not arise. Hence, Ex-Collector Parul’s whimsical decision in procuring musical & sports equipments worth crores has really a regression effect as far as development of tribals in the district is concerned”, said M Nagaraju, Advocate, Rayagada.
