Bolangir: Sarpanchs of different gram panchayats in Bolangir district, who played a pivotal role in the Odisha's government fight against Covid-19, alleged that they are still deprived of the funds announced by the State government.
The State government had empowered the sarpanchs with the power of collector to strengthen the fight against the pandemic and entrusted them with the responsibilities of management of temporary medical centres (TMCs) set up to accommodate migrant workers. The government had also announced Rs 5 lakh special fund for the sarpanchs.
Even as the TMCs have been shut now, the sarpanchs alleged that they are yet to get the funds from the government.
"The Odisha government empowered us with Collector's power to hoodwink us. Thousands of migrant workers returned to the State during Coronavirus lockdown, we worked day and night to ensure their safe stay. But the collector's power had zero value. We could not withdraw a single penny from the fund meant for us. We were just nominal collector," alleged Khagasa Sarpanch Sundarsan Kata.
Alanda Sarpanch Arjun Yadav echoed similar view and said, "We were asked to set up a large number of TMCs. About Rs 20 to 25 lakh was spent in each panchayat. But we did not receive the money yet. The authority asked us to manage the TMCs from the grants of Central Finance Commission (CFC) and the State Finance Commission (SFC) to the panchayat which is not possible."
Not only in the migrant-prone areas, similar situation was also reported in Khujenpali panchayat located on the outskirts of the Bolangir town.
Sarpanch Satyaban Sahu said he had spent lakhs of rupees following the announcement of Rs 5 lakh fund by the government and now in a troublesome situation.
"We did not receive funds for the maintenance of TMCs. Therefore, we had to spend from the GP fund and even from our pocket," Sahu added.
Birbhadra Singh, sarpanch of Randa panchayat said, "The funds which we spent for TMCs would have been spent for other development works."
When asked, the district collector refused to comment on the issue.