Allowed to spend up to Rs 25 lakhs, bureaucrat R Vimla spends Rs 225 Cr, gets indicted by panel

Senior bureaucrat R Vimla spent Rs 225 crore in GKY scheme without govt permission. Govt appointed panel recommends action against the officer

@vivekbhavsar

Mumbai: A committee headed by deputy secretary, Pravin Jain has indicted senior bureaucrat R. Vimla, the then Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Maharashtra Rajya Gramin Jeevan Unnati Abhiyan (MRGJUA) for financial irregularities. The report states that the former bureaucrat violated the limit by spending more than Rs. 25 lakh without taking the necessary nod from the competent authority.

The committee, appointed by Additional Chief Secretary Arvind Kumar of the Rural Development Department has also recommended for strictest action against the former bureaucrat for the financial misconduct. According to the documents in possession with TheNews21, R. Vimla has violated more than the financial power vested in the post she held.

“The state-level executive committee has the powers to approve the annual action plan of the Maharashtra Rajya Gramin Jeevan Unnati Abhiyan. However, R. Vimla unilaterally took the decision to send the action plan for the year 2018-19 of Rs. 627.09 crore and Rs. 508.55 for the year 2019-20 without taking the consent from the state-level committee to the Centre,” the report states.

According to the Central Government’s Deendayal Upadhyay Gramin Kaushlya Yojana (GKY), youth between the age group of 18-35 years of age are imparted skill development training. To impart the training, an institution is selected. And the institution is disbursed subsidised amount in four installments, equivalent to 25 per cent of the total amount.

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However, it is binding on the institution to provide a minimum of 70 per cent jobs to trainee beneficiaries, or else the next installment is not given by the government.

Despite all these conditions, R. Vimla gave a subsidy of Rs. 225.79 crore to 235 institutions for the year 2015-16 to 2020-21.

“Without the permission of the state legislature the government cannot even spend a penny. However, R. Vimla has spent Rs. 225 crore without the approval of the competent authority,” Jain has said in his report.

Indicting her for the financial irregularities, the committee has also recommended for taking strictest action against the former bureaucrat, it added.

Favoritism for MLC Prasad Lad and Hanumant Gaikwad’s institutions?

The Jain committee report has found out that there were innumerable institutions which have been given subsidy leading to financial irregularities. It also points towards the Krystal Integrated Services Limited owned by BJP legislative council leaders Prasad Lad and Hanumant Gaikwad’s Bharat Vikas Group (BVG) which finds mention in the list of institutions.

The report says that Krystal Integrated Services Limited was given a target of training 1083 beneficiaries, and they were disbursed the first installment on 15-03-2016 of Rs. 1.69 crore of the total 6.76 crore. Later on, the target was bought down to 433 from the earlier 1083, but while doing so the amount was not recovered from the institution.

Similarly, BVG had to train 1000 beneficiaries and they were paid the first installment of Rs. 1.36 crore in June 2017. But then, the target was brought down to 450 from 1000, and here too, Rs. 74.62 lakh was not recovered.