Bhopal: Goats provided to thousands of beneficiaries by the animal husbandry department under the Bundelkhand Package have all perished, leaving hundreds of people without source of livelihood, says the report filed by chief technical examiner.
Pocketing the amount sanctioned for the goats, the officials allegedly handed over poor breed goats to the people with low life expectancy. The then UPA government had allocated Rs 3800 crore in the year 2010 in various schemes to bring hope among the Bundelkhand people who were facing drought type situation.
However the amount instead of reaching the real beneficiaries went into the pockets of the people who were assigned the responsibility of implementing the schemes. A sum of Rs 80.70 crore were allotted to animal husbandry department to provide livestock including goats, oxen and other animals to people of the region living under blow poverty line. The aim of the scheme was to provide a source of livelihood to people who were staring at drought, however the scheme failed to bring any relief to the people as the maximum amount sanctioned for the purpose was embezzled.
Social activist Pawan Ghuwara alleged that the animal husbandry department misused 80 per cent of funds allotted for purchasing of cattle and other animals. As per the scheme Oxen were to be provided to those who need it for agriculture purpose and goats were to be given to people engaged in goat farming. The authorities were directed to assure that the livestock to be purchased were of superior quality.
However, the officials playing dirty games sacrificed this very directive and in place handed over poor breed livestock having low life expectancy to the beneficiaries. Other irregularities have also come to surface like the insurance of the goats given to beneficiary was never done. Besides the beneficiary were supposed to pay Rs 1277 back to the government after few months, however the amount was never recovered from them. As the goats were not insured, the beneficiaries did not get the insurance amount, so they were at loss when their animal died. Whereas the government suffered a loss as it failed to receive Rs 14.57 lakh from the beneficiaries, which they were supposed to deposit with them.
