‘There has been misappropriation of funds during the year 2007-08 and 2008-09. This is how public funds advanced to the Council by the Government of Assam have been utilized’
Guwahati, Jul 28 : In order to put an end to the rampant misuse of Central and State government funds meant for the NC Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) in the State, the State Cabinet had taken a decision to release all funds to the council through the Hill Area Development (HAD) Department only.
However, in what could best be termed as an outright violation of the Cabinet decision, the State Health and Family Welfare Department led by Himanta Biswa Sarma as minister — apart from the Social Welfare and Food and Civil Supplies departments — directly released crores of rupees to the NCHAC at a time when embezzlement of funds had been at its peak in the hill district leading to the multi-crore-rupee NC Hills scam.
The unusual promptness on the part of the State Health Department in particular in releasing crores of rupees to NC Hills district violating the Cabinet decision has made many in the State wonder whether Dispur was directly involved in the multi-crore-rupee scam in the hill district.
Surprisingly, even after the Rajkumar Manisana Singh Commission pinpointed the violation of rules in the release of funds by the departments in question, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi fell short of taking any action against the ministers concerned.
An otherwise vocal Himanta Biswa Sarma, on the other hand, has also been silent on the violation of the Cabinet decision in the release of funds by his department that were brought to light by the Manisana Singh Commission.
On June 22, 2007, the State Cabinet had discussed the issue of rampant embezzlement of development funds meant for NC Hills district.
After a detailed discussion, the Cabinet meeting had taken the decision to release all funds to the district, both of the Centre and the State Government, including funds under Plan and Non-Plan heads, through the HAD Department only.
The Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had taken the decision in order to effect fiscal discipline and to keep a watch on the funds being pumped to the hill district. It was imperative for all the departments to respect the Cabinet decision.
The State Health department, however, did not bother to follow the Cabinet decision, nor did the other departments as mentioned.
The Health Department continued to pump crores of rupees to the hill district directly, bypassing the HAD Department.
The Social Welfare and Food and Civil Supplies departments also released funds directly to NC Hills district.
Within a month of the Cabinet decision, the Health Department had directly released Rs 63.43 lakh to the NCHAC on July 17, 2007, and then Rs 24.25 lakh on August 4, 2007, Rs 118.75 lakh on September 27, 2007, Rs 30 lakh on October 11, 2007, Rs 1.81 lakh on January 11, 2008, and Rs 94.18 lakh in two installments on March 24, 2008.
The Social Welfare Department, to which the prime accused in the multi-crore NC Hills scam RH Khan belonged, had released Rs 1,92,91,770 on October 10, 2007, while the Food and Civil Supplies Department had released Rs 1.19 lakh on March 12, 2008 to the NCHAC directly.
All these violations of the standing rules were mentioned by the Manisana Singh Commission in its report. The report said: ‘‘In the above view of the matter, some of the line departments were not following the decision taken on 22/06/07 by the Cabinet. These may be prima facie a breach of the decision of the Cabinet.
The decision of the Cabinet is required to be followed strictly as the decision is for the purpose of promoting measure for maintaining purity and integrity of the administration of the State.’’
The report added: ‘‘There has been misappropriation of funds during the year 2007-08 and 2008-09. This is how public funds advanced to the Council by the Government of Assam have been utilized.’
The Health and Family Welfare, Social Welfare and Food and Civil Supplies departments have not been able to give any appropriate reply as to why they had released funds directly to the NCHAC despite the Cabinet restriction on such practices.
The mysterious silence being maintained by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who is also a State Government spokesman, otherwise very vocal, on the issue only adds to the suspicion as to whether Dispur was involved in the multi-crore-rupee scam.
Another question that can be raised is whether the funds released directly by the departments in question constitute a part of the multi-crore-rupee NC Hills scam.
What is even more astonishing is that the State Government washed its hands off the issue by making a mere statement in the action taken report (ATR): that ‘‘a Committee of Experts is constituted for monitoring the funds sanctioned and released by the Government to the Council’’.
Though the CBI has been investigating the NC Hills scam, a number of departments, including the Health Department, are outside the purview of the inquiry.
There are demands from all quarters that all departments of NCHAC be brought under the purview of the CBI probe.
via The Sentinel Assam
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