Office of leader of opposition has denied the allegation that former chief minister TR Zeliang had ever tried to withdraw Special Road Development Programme (SRDP) fund meant for development of Samziuram village in Phek district.
Reacting to a statement issued by NDPP’s 7 Peren A/C president Itwa and secretary Hiareu claiming that SRDP fund for the village was never diverted but only halted by the PDA government in view of Zeliang’s attempt to withdraw the fund by producing false completion certificate showing 90% work complete, a communiqué issued by information & publicity wing (I&PW) of the leader of opposition’s office asked the duo to educate themselves on the issue and substantiate allegation with facts and figures.
When fund has not been released to Peren executive engineer (R&B), there is no question of attempting to withdraw the fund, the office added.
According to the communiqué, the previous NPF-led government had approved 17 projects under SRDP, earlier known as Chief Minister’s Road Fund, amounting to Rs 15 crore in 2017-18. But the PDA government, after a cabinet meeting on March 13, decided to revise and replace these projects with 12 new projects and the funds already released were directed to be re-deposited and re-appropriated only to be released again against the 12 new projects, the statement clarified.
The leader of opposition’s office further pointed out that the project approved for repair and maintenance of road at Samziuram village at a cost of Rs 3 crore, along with 16 others, was reviewed, re-appropriated and replaced by new works by the PDA government. Apart from Samziuram village, other projects in Peren district that were diverted included improvement of the new headquarters road and Peren-Tening-Nsong road.
Denying the duo’s statement that chief minister Neiphiu Rio’s was being tarnished by a section of the media without knowing facts, the office asserted that Rio was directly involved in the matter and pointed to his reported direction to PWD minister on March 14, following which the minister forwarded the matter to PWD commissioner & secretary that “administrative approval may be issued as per the direction of the Hon’ble CM.”
Subsequent to the direction, work & housing department re-deposited the drawn amount into the government’s account on the direction of finance department on March 22, the leader of opposition claimed.
On March 26, the finance department agreed to the proposal for release of Rs 15 crore for development of 12 new projects under SRDP and accordingly issued drawing limit the same day (No. 81 of 2017-18 under Demand No. 58), Zeliang’s office claimed, adding that on the same day budget & monitoring cell of finance department issued the DDO drawing limit (No. BUD/8-58/2017-18/HV/309) addressed to treasury officer, Kohima (North). The matter was processed and accordingly drawing limit was issued with validity till March 28, with the fund being kept in deposit at present, it was pointed out.
Stressing that SRDP fund was diverted, including the fund for Samziuram, but could not be utilised till date because of a stay order by Kohima Bench of Gauhati High Court, I&PW alleged that manipulated work orders had been issued, which is contempt of court.
Instead of spreading rumours, the leader of opposition asked the two NDPP leaders to obtain a copy of minutes of the cabinet meeting and educate the people on the “discriminatory and bias” decision of the PDA government on the matter. Continuing to play with the future of poor villagers and their basic rights without knowing head and tail of the issue will only aggravate the issue, the communiqué cautioned.