Odisha Vigilance Nets ICDS Official Accepting Rs 80,000 Bribe, 8th Such Case In 3 Months

A Supervisor of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) at Sinapali in Nuapada district was nabbed by the vigilance team while she was accepting a bribe of Rs 80,000 on Monday.

This was the eighth such incident in three months when an ICDS official or its employee has been found involved in corruption.

As per reports, the ICDS Supervisor identified as Harshamani Dei was nabbed by the vigilance sleuths near the Sinapali bus stand while she was accepting bribe of Rs 80,000 from one Bikash Ranjan Bag for appointing the latter as an Anganwadi worker.

Following the seizure, separate vigilance teams raided her houses at Anlabhatta and Khariar. Her rented accommodation at Sinapali and office were also searched.

Vigilance teams of Nuapada, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur and Jeypore were involved in the raids.

It is worthwhile to mention here that with the arrest of Dei, the count of corrupt ICDS officials in Vigilance net has gone upto eight in a span of just three months. Those include four CDPOs; Mallilata Das in Bhadrak, Meena Patra in Biswanathpur under Lanjigarh Block in Kalahandi, Puspanjali Rath at Th.Rampur Block in Kalahandi and Sarala Dei of Balikuda in Jagatsinghpur.

Apart from that three Supervisors and one Anganwadi worker were also arrested.

Notably, demanding the regularisation of jobs and hike in their salaries and allowances, the agitating women members of the contractual ICDS Supervisors’ body had staged a dharna in November this year at PMG square in Bhubaneswar.