Under the ‘zero tolerance’ policy of the UP government, sleuths of the Vigilance Establishment initiated action against 187 village officials of Hardoi after they were allegedly found prima facie guilty of swindling funds worth over Rs 17 lakh in purchase of dustbins under the Swachh Bharat Mission of the Central government.

After the scam came to the fore during an open investigation by the Vigilance Establishment, an FIR was registered against 187 village development officers and village heads of Hardoi.

Reports said that the state government had issued guidelines in February 2015 for the implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) under which the arrangement of dustbins was to be made by the gram panchayat for solid and liquid waste in rural areas. 

The payment was to be done according to norms and procedure as prescribed at the gram panchayat level. In Hardoi, the dustbins were purchased without any order in writing. Following a complaint on May 9, 2019, the government had ordered a vigilance probe against the then district panchayati raj officer of Hardoi, Anil Kumar Singh.

Sources said the inquiry found that no written order was passed for the purchase of dustbins in Hardoi. On verbal orders, the dustbins were supplied at higher rates by M/s SSCO Management Service, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow. Prescribed procedures were not followed in the purchase of dustbins. The open investigation also revealed that one dustbin of Nilkamal brand was supplied at the rate of Rs 8,348 in addition to GST and another of Supreme brand was supplied at the rate of Rs 8,686 plus GST.

It also came to the fore that a 100-litre dustbin of Supreme brand was available for Rs 3,000 and that of Nilkamal brand for Rs 2,200. The cost of installation was also calculated in the investigation and it was found that more than Rs 17 lakh were siphoned off.

Director of SSCO Management Service Sunil Kumar Singh was also found guilty. The government ordered the Vigilance Establishment to conduct a probe after registering an FIR. On the orders of the government, the Vigilance Establishment, Lucknow, conducted an enquiry and registered a case against Neeraj Kumar, Lal Bahadur, Palsa Devi, Satyendra Kumar Sharma, Shrish Mishra, Prempal, Rizwan Ali, Najo Zulfikar, Laxmi Narayan and other village development officers and village heads.