Dimapur, September 22 (MExN): The Nagaland Public Rights Awareness and Action Forum (NPRAAF) today alleged that the State Finance Department (FD) instead of responding to points raised by NPRAAF is “trying to confuse the public by beating around the bush just for the sake of a rebuttal resulting in a hollowed response.”
While NPRAAF had raised issues on double drawal, CM Corpus Fund and Article 275 (1), the FD is ignoring all issues and concentrating only on double drawal and that too without disclosing the GoI sanction number, stated a rejoinder from Information & Publicity Cell, NPRAAF. “If the double drawal authority was issued as per funds received from GoI under Article 275 (1), why is the FD not being able to disclose the GoI sanction number?” it questioned.
NPRAAF further claimed that the FD has also released another Rs 12.63 crore in 10 drawal authorities during 2016-17 dated December 9, 2016, February 24, 2017, March 6, 2017, March 17, 2017, four different DAs on March 18, 2017, March 20, 2017 and March 30, 2017. “All these DAs relate to repair/renovations, retaining walls, boundary walls etc out of which more than 90% of the DAs was spent for Planning Colony, Kohima,” it added.
“With lots of basic developmental needs yet to reach every nook and corner of public inhabited areas, is it justified for the government to spend such huge sum of money for a single colony by a single department?” the Forum further questioned.
If the same trend has been followed for past years together, it said, the amount released for repair/renovations etc could cross several hundreds of crores of rupees. With regard to the FD’s claim that the process of issue of drawal authorities was for the sole purpose of placing the funds at the disposal of the department concerned for implementation of the programme, NPRAAF stated, “If this is the case, then the FD is acting more like a Post Office receiving and releasing parcels (funds).”
It reiterated its appeal to the State Vigilance Commission to conduct an inquiry into all these “doubtful” DAs issued by the FD under Article 275 (1) since the total amount released under Article 275 (1) during 2016-17 has reached Rs 96.03 crore {inclusive of the double drawal authorities which the FD said was under Article 275 (1)}. Funds released for repair and renovations may also be taken into account for inquiry since the amount released could cross several hundreds of crores of rupees, NPRAAF added.
“Without any satisfactory clarification either from the FD or Planning & Coordination Department, the NPRAAF will be compelled to take stringent but democratic recourse to arrive at logical conclusions into all these doubtful Das,” it asserted.
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