Panchayat officers owe BSNL Rs 4 crore

SHIMOGA: Officers of gram, taluk and zilla panchayats in the state owe the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited Rs 4.5 crore and may have their pay deducted if they don't pay up immediately.
Confirming this to The New Indian Express, director of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) Shivashankar said if CEOs of zilla panchayats did not act soon, they would be held responsible.Under the MNREGS scheme, the Union Government provided secretaries of gram panchayats and officers at taluk level and district level with cell phones. While gram panchayat secretaries were provided with talk time of Rs 250 a month, taluk and districtlevel officers were entitled to Rs 750 talk time. All mobile numbers under the scheme were also included in an intercircle of the BSNL loop, calls to which will not be charged. But, as these officers exceeded the limit and called numbers outside the loop, they were asked to pay bills under administrative expenses of the project, which they failed to do.