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    Local officials inflate Karnataka flood relief payouts

    Synopsis

    A top revenue official, not wanting to be identified, told ET that several tahsildars and village accountants in some districts of north Karnataka, particularly Haveri, had misused their power to approve beneficiaries for flood-relief compensation.

    Flood
    Karnataka is considered a pioneer in making direct benefit transfer (DBT) of compensation to families affected by drought and floods.
    BENGALURU: Weeks after Karnataka home minister Basavaraj Bommai was tipped off by a person about alleged irregularities in the distribution of flood-relief compensation in Haveri district, officials at the revenue department said there was a major scam behind what was initially seen as a oneoff case.

    A top revenue official, not wanting to be identified, told ET that several tahsildars and village accountants in some districts of north Karnataka, particularly Haveri, had misused their power to approve beneficiaries for flood-relief compensation. It prima facie appeared that some revenue officials, while giving away relief to eligible families, also included others. According to initial estimates, the number of illegal transactions of money is about 13-14% of the total transactions in some pockets.

    Belagavi regional commissioner Amlan Aditya Biswas said: “I was given the initial responsibility to probe when the incident came to light. I found there were many instances of misuse and payment issues involving setribuveral officials. I have written to the government providing details and suggesting ways to fix the system.”

    Karnataka is considered a pioneer in making direct benefit transfer (DBT) of compensation to families affected by drought and floods.

    The revenue department developed a custom software, Parihara, for this purpose three years ago.

    The government had authorised revenue staffers to take a call if the beneficiary’s name in the Aadhaar database did not match with the land records. Taking advantage of this, some tahsildars and village accountants channelled the funds inappropriately, said the official, adding that these officials were also empowered to decide on the beneficiary if the survey number was not demarcated properly or the land transfer was yet to happen.


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