Five government staffers held for flood relief scam |
BY A STAFF REPORTER | Thursday, November 16, 2006 10:16:57 IST |
They collectively mismanaged funds amounting to Rs 90,500 meant as relief for the families residing in Kurla |
Those arrested are Satish Salunkhe, the garden superintendent, Nanashankar Loke, who works with the education department of the Mumbai municipal corporation, Vishnu Nagam, a clerk at a sales tax office in suburban Bandra, Ashok Salunkhe, a driver with transport undertaking BEST, and Raghunath Bansode, employed with a government-owned dairy in suburban Kurla.
According to the ACB official, they have collectively mismanaged funds to the tune of Rs 90,500 meant as relief for the families residing in Kurla who were affected by the torrential rains in July last year.
With this, the total number of arrest in the scam has gone to seven. Prakash Waghmare and Kisan Nalawade, clerks at the state revenue department office at suburban Mulund, were arrested on November 2.
The arrested persons were entrusted with assessing the flood damage and disbursing relief to affected families. The government had promised a sum of Rs 1,000 per person and a maximum of Rs 5,000 per family as flood relief.
All the five were arrested from their residences in various parts of the metropolis. They will be produced before a special court for remand tomorrow, the official said, adding the ACB is on a lookout for two more persons.
The scam came to light after a resident in Kurla used the Right to Information Act to find out details about the amount of money disbursed by the revenue department.