Trinamul leader disappears with lakhs of rupees

A Trinamul panchayat samiti leader in West Midnapore has disappeared after allegedly collecting Rs 7 lakh from 13 families who had been given the money to build houses under a central government scheme.

The families, enlisted under the BPL category, are in a fix now as the Jhargram block development officer, Sudarshan Choudhury, has threatened legal action against them for not constructing their houses despite getting the money under the Indira Awaas Yojana, reported media from Kolkatta.

The 13 families of Amdiha village had lodged a police complaint in June alleging that Tarak Kotal, a Trinamul functionary in charge of the electricity department at the Jhargram panchayat samiti, had taken the money from them with the assurance that he would get the houses built. Kotal has been untraceable since. The funds were allotted to the 13 families in two phases – one in November 2015 and the other in February this year. They were among the 50-odd beneficiaries in the area who were given Rs 75,000 each to build homes.