Lucknow: Crores of rupees meant for PF accounts of 5,300 employees posted for maintenance of monuments and parks named after Dalit icons and built by the BSP government have been fraudulently withdrawn by scamsters. Instead of deducting the PF from the salary by creating a PPF account, the money was kept in a fixed deposit account and later withdrawn by fraudulent means. In this way, Rs 10 crore was embezzled by the manager of the Bank of Baroda.
All this was done in violation of an order in 2018, which said that the part deducted from the salaries of the employees should be deposited in their PPF accounts. In the greed for commission from banks, officials of the finance and accounts department in charge of monuments kept throwing dust on the eyes of the authorities and Rs 48 crore that was cut from the salaries was deposited in the FD account. Of this hard-earned money of the employees, Rs 10 crore went into the pockets of the scamsters.
When an audit was done, it came to light that in the account that had Rs 48 crore, only Rs 38 crore was left. After investigation, it was found that a conspiracy was hatched to withdraw this amount from the Bank of Baroda account where it was deposited. A fake accounts officer of the monuments committee was created and an account was opened. A meeting was held in name only and then the amount was taken out from the FD account and deposited in the other account. All this came to be revealed during the course of the audit. The finance manager in charge of monuments has been suspended and all other FDs are being audited.
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Sources say that the officials of the finance department in charge of monuments got this FD done in the greed of lump sum commission from banks. However, a case was registered Thursday against the bank manager and two unidentified persons in this case, while the finance manager was suspended.
Lucknow Development Authority Vice President Akshay Tripathi said that along with the PPF accounts of the employees, NPS accounts are also to be opened, which will fetch better returns.
“This will not harm the employees,” he said. “This entire matter is being investigated. A case has also been registered.”
