As many as 15 Panchayats in Burdwan (East) consistently failed to give proper explanations on revenue generated from toll tax collection in their respective areas leading the district administration to take the matter to the state secretariat, Nabanna, the officials said.
The district is preparing to initiate legal action against those 15 offender Panchayats, the officials said. The DM, Burdwan (East), Vijay Bharti said: “The matter was discussed at length at a district level meeting yesterday where senior officials with district Panchayat department participated.”
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee in her recent virtual meeting pulled up the district magistrate for non-compliance of construction of 95 kms of rural road under State Rural Development Agency for failing to lay 13.5 kms road against the targeted figure.
She instructed Debu Tudu, Saha Sabhadhipati of the district Zilla Parishad to ensure completion of pending work.
On inquiry about the rural roads, the district administration detected that several Panchayats never maintained any financial records of the revenues generated out of toll tax. Most of these are TMC run panchayats and located in Raina, Jamalpur, Khandaghosh, Madhabdihi, Galsi blocks. The DM said: “We have ordered them to table the accounts shortly and we are going to intimate the matter to the state Panchayat & Rural Development department.”
It is to be noted that fifty percent of the revenue generated by the Panchayats from road toll tax collection is to be spent on maintenance of the road and the remaining 50,on other roads. The inquiry revealed deteriorating road conditions making it unfit for vehicles