To
The Chairman Date-
1.7.19
Lokayukta, Govt. of Odisha
Toshali Bhawan
Satya Nagar
Bhubaneswar
Sub- Complaint
on Illegal drawal of lakhs of rupees
from Odisha State Cooperative Bank, Bhubaneswar by Sri
BishnuPada Sethy, IAS during his
tenure as Management-In-Charge ,
OSCB , presently working as State
Relief Commissioner, Govt. of Odisha
Respected
Sir
I,
Sri Srikant Pakal, RTI Activist and Member
of Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan ( Odisha Campaign for Right to Information, a network
spreading campaign on RTI
to enforce transparency and accountability in the administration and to fight out corruption in Odisha) bring
to the kind notice
of the Lokayukta, Odisha the
following allegation of corruption and irregularities against
Sri Bishnupada Setthy, IAS serving presently as State Relief Commissioner.
That,
I received a copy of statutory Report of inspection of Orissa State Cooperative Bank conducted by
NABARD conducted u/s 35 (6) of Banking Regulation Act, 1949 basing on the
financial position as on 31.3.2018 along with note for departmental action submitted to Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Govt. of
Odisha, Bhubaneswar. It
was found from the
report about objectionable and illegal payments of lakhs of rupees made to Bishnupada Sethy,
when he was not at all the employee of Odisha State Cooperative Bank( OSCB), Bhubaneswar.
Sri
Bishnupada Sethy IAS, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Cooperation
Department held the additional charge of
OSCB as its Management-in-Charge ( MIC) with
effect from 5th February, 2013 and continued upto 2016. As per provisions of Section 3(2) of OCS Act,
the State Government may by general or special order confer on any person
appointed to assist the Registrar all or any of the powers of Registrar under
OCS Act to be exercised within such local limit as may be assigned by the
Registrar. Under the Section 3(4) of the OCS Act, the persons appointed to
assist the Registrar shall exercise the power conferred on him subject to
general superintendence and control of the Registrar. There were no policy or guidelines or order
approved by Registrar, Cooperative Society by which Sri Bishnupada Sethy would be eligible for various benefits. However, it was observed that the Bank had reimbursed / paid book ( amounting to Rs. 10,000 per annum) ,
Electricity/ Energy Bill on actual basis
, orderly allowances ( at Rs. 3000 per month), and above all Incentive ( staff Rule No. 54-A) payable to employees
who are otherwise not eligible
for Bonus not exceeding 45 days
salary. Incentive paid stood at Rs. 1,70,691 for 2013-14,
Rs. 1,91,519 for 2014-15 and Rs. 65, 993 for 2015-16. Sri Sethy not being staff member of the Bank as per staff
service Rules should not have been paid the amount and all payments constitute
illegal.
During his tenure
as MIC, Sri Sethy had got reimbursed medical
bills
in three phases amounting to Rs. 9,46,071 towards hospitalization of wife and father. There were
recommendations from Government for reimbursement in two phases on budget
constraints with the Department concerned and in one case there was no
recommendation from Government. These are all illegal payments made to Sri
Sethy.
It deserves to be
mentioned here that having heard
about these payments
made to Sri Bishnupada Sethy, one of my RTI
Activist-friends had filed RTI
Application dated 26.11.18 to the PIO,
office of Odisha State Cooperative
Bank seeking information about ( a) details of various incentives like orderly
allowances, electricity bill and any
others received by him ( month-wise) ,
(b) provide information about details of decision taken
by OSCB, (c) details of medical
reimbursement bill given
by Sri Bishnu Pada Sethy and amount
released against it and copy of
decisions taken for payment against
medical reimbursement etc. The PIO denied
to supply the information
under section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act. However, this case
is pending in the office of Odisha Information Commission for disposal.
So, I request
your good office to conduct an inquiry into
the above allegation, take
all possible legal steps to
recover the amount
paid to Sri sethy and take legal action against Sri Sethy and all those responsible for such illegal payments.
Thanking you
Yours sincerely
Srikant
Pakal
Qr.No.-
25/1, O.T.M.Colony, Choudwar, Cuttack -754025
Annexture-
1.
Inspection Report of NABARD
2.
Staff
Rules of Odisha State
Cooperative Bank
3.
Statement
Accounts of Bishnupada Sethy
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