Imphal, January 11: This is not from Ripley's Believe It Or Not, but about what actually happened in Mani- pur right under the nose of the Govt for 20 years.

An enterprising fellow has been caught serving two Departments as a bonafide Govt employee for over 20 years in different capacities, drawing the salaries and other benefits for the two posts he occupied simultaneously! A well placed source informed The Sangai Express that this man in question served two Govt Departments for over 20 years and took voluntary retirement from one of his posts only in January last year with all the post retirement benefits.

Interes- tingly he is still continuing his service in his second post! The matter has reached the level of the Chief Minister and due process of law has been set in motion to recover all the money that the fraud received during his duplicitous days, said the source.

Not surprisingly the unprecedented �discovery� led to hectic activities today and the Chief Minister himself convened a meeting to study the case and to take up the due legal process to recover all the money that was paid to the �double� employee.

On November 8, 1979, the man in question entered service in a Matriculate post at the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department.

His basic pay at the time of entering service was Rs 3050-4950.He served as the Panchayat secretary of Sawombung block.

Apart from his pay, he received all the other benefits payable to a Government employee, added the source.

Not satisfied with being appointed only at the Rural Development and Pan-chayati Raj Department, the man decided to offer his service to the Minor Irrigation and was appointed at the said department as a Road Mohori in 1981.Obviously tired of doubling up and serving in two departments simultaneously, the enterprising man took voluntary retirement from Minor Irrigation on January 15 last year with all the post retirement benefits.

The man obviously had his agenda well charted out.

While he himself personally attended the office at the Panchayati Raj and Rural Development office, a close ally was appointed to take his place at Minor Irrigation.

For 20 long years, the man duped his fellow workers as well as the authority and only took voluntary retirement from one of his appointments once he had completed the mandatory 20 years in service to be able to take voluntary retirement.

On top of his monthly emoluments, the man also received Rs 1 lakhs from GPF, Rs 50,000 as leave encashment, Rs 10,000 as group insurance after retiring from one of his posts.

Process to receive his pension is also nearly finalised.

Officers were completely in the dark over the double role played by this enterprising man and the matter came to light only recently.

Fittingly a Vigilance case has been instituted.

This is the first such case that has surfaced in Manipur.

The source however refused to divulge the name of the man adding that due action will be taken up according to the law.

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