Rayagada Chaiti preparatory meet: citizens register dissent regarding financial irregularities of Rs.92 lakhs
Dr.Badal Tah,Odishabarta
Rayagada, November 27: As Chaiti is a local People’s festival, specially of tribals, several issues were pointed out by Rayagada public during the preparatory meet held in Biju Pattanaik Auditorium in the presence of Minister Jagannath Saraka, Rayagada MLA Makaranda Muduli, Gunupur MLA Raghunath Gomango, Ex-Chief Minister Giridhar Gomango, SP Vivekananda Sharma, ADM Rameswar Pradhan, ADM Bhaskar Raito, Rayagada Sub-Collector Kalyani Sanghamitra Devi and BSKY Advisor Sudhir Das.
Though around Rs.92 lakhs was spent in the Chaiti held during January-2023, no account statement was shared with the public assembled in the said preparatory meet as the cash book is yet to be finalised with audit report even after passage of almost 10 months of the event. According to the participants of the meeting, the then ADM Dharmananda Behera & present DCO Sasmita Bauri are involved in massive corruption as there was numerous cash transactions. Unaccounted cash was received by the above duo, which have not come to the cash book and money receipts were not issued to the donors.
There are several instances of cheques drawn in the name of Sasmita Bauri, DCO, Rayagada. She was also instrumental in involving a Govt teacher involved in criminal activities. Though lakhs of money was spent towards souvenir “Chaitali”, not a single copy was distributed to the public. Brazenly misappropriation was done in food distribution and engagement of an event management company.
A committee representing the public has appealed the District Collector & SP has rendered few suggestions for conducting the ensuing Chaiti-2023.
A finance committee involving competent public persons including senior citizens, media persons, retired govt servants, etc must be made to scrutinise & ratify all the bills and vouchers of Chaiti-2022 in the audit process. A plan and budget needs to be immediately drawn for Chaiti-2023, ratified by competent committee and shared with the public. The District Cultural Council(DCC), which conducts the Chaiti, is a registered body and its accounts needs to be audited with immediate effect and shared in a public meeting. Donation should be collected only after sharing the statutory audit or else it will lead to criminal activities as yesteryear. Statutory requirements like IT return, etc needs to be complied.
The DCC needs to be re-constituted as per the advertisement by DCO & response by interested persons. There should be an inquiry & if found guilty, the DCO and the Ex-ADM, who was in charge of previous year Chaiti, must be taken to task for their sheer embezzlement of public fund. The DCO should not be involved at all in the Chaiti-2023 as she is involved with misappropriation and under public scrutiny. A link person from the public needs to be selected to coordinate with the district administration. Care must be taken to constitute each & every Chaiti Committee/Sub-Committee by including local adivasis as Chaiti is primarily a festival of local tribals. Elected peoples’ representatives, especially PRI members should be given DCC-ID cards to participate in the Chaiti in a dignified manner.
Chaiti-Idital for Gunupur should be inaugurated at Mattarvnam temple at Marichaguda, Padmapur block. Local cultural troupes must be taken into account and spending of budget must be in the tune of 80% for such troupes. 20% spending for cultural troupes from outside the district should be followed. Local vendors must be involved in food, tent, light & sound, photography & videography, etc. The public have requested the Coillector and SP to engage an upright senior officer for the purpose & pro-act upon the issues raised and suggestions made. ADM Rameswar Pradhan and SP Vivekananda Sharma have discussed all these issues and suggestions with the representatives and assured to look into the matter for smooth conductance of Chaiti.
As per the decision in the preparatory meeting, the 3-day Chaiti will start from December-26 followed by Pallishree Mela on 29th and 30th December. This year Chaiti will be inaugurated on December 11 from Devagiri in K Singhpur block and Chaiti Idital from Marichaguda in Padmapur block. The meeting ended abruptly as there was a chaos regarding the financial irregularities of the previous year Chaiti though Raito assured the public to place the accounts & audit before the public soon in another meeting.
