DIMAPUR, AUGUSt 14 (MExN): The Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation (ACAUT) Nagaland has alleged the State Finance and the PWD Department of blatant corruption involving a case of “drawing fictitious bills over the same project repeatedly.”
Media Cell, ACAUT in a press statement informed that the State Finance Department (Budget & Monitoring Cell) had released Rs 5,709.94 lakhs (57 crore, 9 lakhs and 94 thousand) in 2016 & 2017 for construction of a single bridge over River Tizit on Mon-Tizit Road.
At first, an amount of Rs 2854.97 lakh (28 crore 54 lakhs 97 thousand) was released on April 17, 2017 under “Non Developmental” against construction of the said bridge. The drawal limit of this sanction was valid till April 20, 2017.
Then, another drawal authority of the same amount for the same project was again released on May 29, 2017, mentioning that the amount release order was issued in “supersession of the earlier order dated April 17, 2017.”
While pointing out that when the first amount of Rs 28.54 crore was allowed to be drawn on or before April 20, 2017, ACAUT alleged that the “Finance Department issuing such belated supersession order raises a lot of questions and points to blatant corruption since the so-called supersession order in effect allows two withdrawals amounting to Rs 5,709.94 lakhs.”
Considering that the two different release orders amounting to Rs 5709.94 lakhs are the total project cost for one single bridge, ACAUT wanted to know if the government is trying to construct a “Golden Bridge” in an area where the road condition is one of the worst in the State, which being the Namtola-Tizit-Mon road.
ACAUT also expressed surprise that while the project is under EE PWD (R&B) Mon, the drawal authority was issued in favour of EE PWD (R&B) Kohima South Division.
Further, the two release orders issued on April 17 and May 29, 2017 were under “Non-Developmental,” which ACAUT stated was an unheard of scheme. “Normally, as per RTI information, expenditures are incurred under Non-Plan/State Plan/CSS etc. but “Non-Developmental” is a new term coined by the authorities to simply fool the public and draw public money, it stated.
ACAUT has served a week’s notice for the concerned authorities to furnish the names of the contractor/firm, total cost of the project, date of commencement of project and total amount released so far for the bridge.
It also demanded the names of officials and individuals involved in the processing and passing of the project and payment; name of officers in the Planning and Finance Department involved in processing and clearing the drawal authorities. It has also asked the PWD to justify incurring of such a huge amount for a single bridge. ACAUT further demanded that details on the project for improvement of road from City Tower Jn to DC Court Jn, Dimapur.
Failing to satisfactorily clarify on these issues, the ACAUT said it would be compelled to lodge an FIR. It meanwhile urged the Chief Minister to immediately freeze the amounts released against the projects.
