eGramswaraj portal flags fund irregularities in Adilabad villages

Discrepancies between bills and fund withdrawals on the eGramswaraj portal have exposed possible financial irregularities in villages of Adilabad district. Officials attribute some issues to negligence, but concerns over transparency and accountability remain.

Adilabad: Compromising the objective of eGramswaraj, a digital system aimed at bringing transparency in how public money is spent, striking differences can be noticed between bills of various development works and funds withdrawn by civic bodies on the portal. This glaring difference exposes irregularities in the use of public money in several parts of the erstwhile Adilabad district.

The ambitious eGramswaraj is a simplified work-based accounting application introduced by the Centre in 2020. It was designed to strengthen digital governance in Panchayat Raj institutions. The objective was to enhance transparency in the administration of villages, enable the public to track real-time progress of developmental projects and ensure accountability in financial management.

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Details of developmental projects taken up with Central and State government funds and the own resources of rural civic bodies should be uploaded on the eGramswaraj portal. Original bills and vouchers for payments made to either contractors or vendors must be scanned and posted in the public domain, allowing citizens to track spending of funds on a work using their mobile phones.

However, glaring variations can be found in bills and vouchers submitted on the website and funds claimed by villages in the 2025-26 financial year, reflecting gross financial irregularities. For instance, a bill of Rs 6,235 was uploaded on the portal by a village in Dahegaon mandal for purchasing fuel in February 2025, but Rs 48,500 was withdrawn by the village.

Similarly, the same copy of the resolution passed by Ootsarangapalli was posted on the website for withdrawing funds granted by the 15th Finance Commission. Prices of electrical lamps were shown at higher rates in the bills issued by local vendors. For example, an 18 watt LED was priced at Rs 450 per unit as against Rs 200 in a bill uploaded by a village in Hajipur mandal.

Panchayat officials said that instructions were given to Mandal Panchayat officials to verify the bills and take steps to prevent misappropriation of public money. They reasoned that computer operators engaged to upload copies of the bills and vouchers showed negligence in certain villages, leading to doubts over utilisation of funds of various schemes by both the Centre and State governments.