At an emergency meeting here of all project directors of the District Rural Development Agency and the chief executive officers of zilla parishads, Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh warned them against delinquency and directed them not to give cause for further court wrath.
Mr. Deshmukh told journalists later that the two-day meeting was convened to assess the enormity of the scam. As money was being sent directly to the districts, the district administration would be held responsible for any embezzlement. He did not consider it proper to hold the States responsible for irregularities, though they were the controlling authorities.
The Supreme Court has ordered a CBI probe into irregularities in Orissa and the murder of an RTI activist in Jharkhand.
The complaints, Mr. Deshmukh said, were serious as money was not reaching the people, so the government decided to ask the officers to be on alert to prevent siphoning off of the money and caution them about the implications of such misdeeds, especially with the judiciary taking a strong stand.
The government was also under pressure in Parliament over the high number of complaints, the Minister told the officials. It would be difficult for it to avoid ordering enquiries, and the only way to avoid such unpleasant action was for them to exercise the utmost care in the execution of the schemes.