Kendrapara, Oct. 19: An estimated Rs 62 lakh earmarked for the Centre’s flagship poverty alleviation and rural development project under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been allegedly swindled by unscrupulous officials in the Rajkanika block.

It is alleged that money had been misappropriated and the execution of work “is on paper only”.

While there was no physical trace of the work done, the released funds seemed to have been pocketed by panchayati raj institutions’ representatives and panchayat executive officers.

Officials said corroborative evidence of fund misuse has come to light and disciplinary proceedings have been initiated against erring employees accordingly.

“Till now, two panchayat executive officers besides a sarpanch have been placed under suspension after preliminary investigation suggested misappropriation of government grants,” said Kendrapara collector Pradeepta Kishore Pattnaik.

An estimated Rs 30 lakh was bungled in Abdulpur gram panchayat, while Rs 32 lakh was similarly embezzled in Jaynagar gram panchayat. Both the sarpanch and executive officer have been axed for perpetrating corrupt practices and the executive officer in Jaynagar has been removed from his post.

The state panchayati raj administration has been called upon to remove the sarpanch on corruption charge. The fund misuse is dated to 2009-2010 financial year. The role of the then block development officer has also come under scanner. The officer has been served with a showcause notice, he said.

Since the central programme was launched in the district about four years ago, the NREGA was largely free from funds misuse and corrupt practices in the district.

This is the first instance of major fraud of central funds. However, instances of fake muster roll and undeserving job-card holders, machines doing the work of manual labour had hogged the spotlight in some places. But irregularities were considerably of lesser magnitude.

In both Abdulpur and Jaynagar gram panchayats, there was clear-cut misappropriation of NREGA funds. Everything right from measurement book, muster roll to specimen signatures of junior engineer was forged. To top it all, the works were executed on paper only, said officials.