Dimapur, April 15 (MExN): ACAUT Nagaland has urged the Chief Secretary of Nagaland State to institute an enquiry and, thereafter, lodge a complaint to the CBI for thorough investigation of “all funds utilized by the department of Rural Development.”
Worry was expressed on the proper utilization of the central fund called MGNREGA after the Medziphema Village Council alleged that the Nagaland State’s Rural Development Department forcibly took blank cheques from its VDB secretary and VC chairperson on various occasions for “department mobilization works” without any clarity on these said works.
From the “facts reported in the press,” the ACAUT Nagaland found that the “action of the concerned officer/BDO or the department asking a blank cheque for departmental mobilization works can in no way be construed as legitimate and it is prima facie extortion from the helpless village council by the department and its officials.”
The anti-corruption body noted that a government agency’s expenses are allocated during the financial year and the “question of deducting money from the VDB allocated fund for departmental mobilization does not arise and such deduction is illegal.”
ACAUT Nagaland concluded in their letter to the CS that in this case, “rural development fund is reported to have being siphoned off by unscrupulous Government employees in the name of the department.” Thus, in the interest of the public, it ‘demanded’ that the Chief Secretary’s office “take a proactive role in facilitating accountability and transparency and address the subject matter.”
Furthermore, the ACAUT Nagaland requested that the office “accord prosecution sanction to start criminal trial of the concern offenders under Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, as when asked for.”
