'Jalanidhi' of corruption; did not benefit people, says vigilance

• "Operation Delta" revealed corruption worth crores

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Vigilance found corruption worth crores in the 'Jalanidhi' scheme for drinking water supply under Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency. Corruption and mismanagement of crores were discovered in the raid named "Operation Delta" conducted on Wednesday from 11 am to yesterday evening. Vigilance's lightning inspection was conducted in 46 grama panchayats.

The project in Kasaragod Bellur Gram Panchayat costing 7.5 crores, Malappuram Chokkad worth 5 crores, Wayanad Thondernad worth 2.45 crores, Kannur Kunnoth worth 66 lakhs, Pambooran Para worth 41.30 lakhs in Kottayam Bharananganam and Wayanad Pulpally worth 20 lakhs are in a dead state.

The Kattippara project in Kozhikode was operational for only two months. Six of the 15 schemes set up at Kannanthanam in Pathanamthitta, two in Kasaragod Periye and the Kadaplamattom scheme in Kottayam are also inoperative. As all the projects were implemented without ensuring water availability, the consumers are not getting the benefit of it. In many places, the water pumped directly from the aquifers is supplied to the consumers without even treatment.

Contractors are only benamis

Jalanidhi implementation is supervised by a Grama Panchayat level activity committee elected from among the beneficiaries. However, vigilance found that for each of the schemes taken up by this private-only committee, the selection of contractors was not transparent and many contractors were benamis of members themselves. It was also found that more amount was collected from customers in Malappuram, Wayanad, Thrissur and Kottayam districts. Vigilance Director Manoj Abraham said that the inspection will be extended to other panchayats where the Jalanidhi project has been implemented and a report will be submitted to the government about the irregularities.