Bhubaneswar, 22 May (H.S.): Odisha Vigilance Department on Friday apprehended four government officials, including an Assistant Project Director, for allegedly embezzling more than ₹20 lakh under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

Acting on allegations of large-scale misappropriation of government funds meant for the excavation of farm ponds in Kashipur Block of Rayagada district, the Vigilance launched a verification process. During the probe, it was found that no excavation work was carried out for 23 farm ponds across different villages, despite funds having been withdrawn.

The four accused have been identified as Rajendra Nath Naik, Assistant Project Director-cum-Project Implementing Agency (Class-I), Jogendra Khosla, Soil Conservation Overseer, Deepak Kumar Sahoo, Soil Conservation Overseer, kumar Nayak, Soil Conservation Extension Worker.All four are officials from the office of the Project Director, Watershed, Rayagada.

According to officials, the accused had fraudulently transferred government funds into the accounts of job card-holding labourers and subsequently withdrew the money without executing the sanctioned work. The siphoned amount currently exceeds ₹20 lakh, and the number of fraudulent transactions may rise as further investigations continue.

Notably, the farm ponds in question are located in remote and forested regions of Kashipur Block, which has posed challenges to the verification teams. Odisha Vigilance has stated that ongoing field verifications could reveal additional instances of embezzlement.

Following the findings, a case—Koraput Vigilance PS Case No. 20 dated 21.05.2025—has been registered against the accused. All four were taken into custody today, and further investigation is underway.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Monalisa Panda