Nagaland Public Rights Awareness and Action Forum (NPRAFF) has accused the Finance department (FD) of “trying to confuse the public by beating around the bush” with its hollowed clarifications, rather than responding to the points raised by it.
In a press note, NPRAFF pointed out that it had raised issues on double drawals, CM Corpus Fund and Article 275 (1). However, NPRAFF said FD chose to ignore all other issues and concentrated only on double drawals, that too without disclosing the GoI sanction number.
NPRAFF asked FD that if the double Drawal Authority (DA) was issued as per funds received from GoI under Article 275 (1), then why was the department not being able to disclose the GoI sanction number? Since the government was answerable to the public, represented by various organizations/associations etc, it is the duty of the government to clearly clarify any doubts raised by the public through various NGOs, it said.
Further, NPRAFF brought out another issue wherein FD had released another Rs 12. 63 crore in 10 drawal authorities during 2016-17 dated December 9, 2016; February 23, 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 were spent for Planning Colony, Kohima, NPRAFF said.
With of basic developmental needs yet to reach every nook and corner of the state, NPRAFF questioned the government whether it was justifiable to spend such huge amount for a single colony by a single department? And whether all the expenditures was need-based?
NPRAFF however expressed doubts that if the same trend had been followed for past years, the amount released for repair/renovations etc. could have cross several hundreds of crores of rupees.
The forum maintained that equitable development should reach the public irrespective of their geographical locations.
With regard to the clarification that the process of issue of DAs was for the sole purpose of placing the funds at the disposal of the concerned department for implementation of the programme, NPRAFF said if this was the case, then the FD was acting more like a Post Office receiving and releasing parcels (funds).
The forum reiterated its appeal to the State Vigilance Commission to conduct an inquiry into all the doubtful DAs issued by the Finance department under Article 275 (1), pointing out that the total amount released under Article 275 (1) during 2016-17 had reached Rs 96.03 crore {inclusive of the double DAs which the FD said was under Article 275 (1)}.
It said funds released for repair and renovations may also be taken into account for inquiry since the amount released could have crossed several hundreds of crores of rupees.
The forum further warned that if the Finance department or the Planning department failed to provide satisfactory clarification, it would be compelled to take stringent but democratic recourse to arrive at logical conclusions into all the doubtful DAs.