Rising People’s Party (RPP), which had on August 27 last sought report from the public on anomalies in the implementation of central projects in Nagaland, has come out with the report on 18 central projects sanctioned by the Tribal Affairs Ministry and implemented by the state planning and co-ordination department. (See table)
RPP has expressed gratitude to the “whistleblowers” for furnishing their reports to the party. RPP said that out of the 18 projects highlighted, only a few seemed to be genuine, though it was yet to receive completion certificates of projects from the department.
The party said that complaints would be filed with the appropriate authority regardless of whether the projects have been implemented or not since the project completion period was already over.
RPP claimed that most of the projects seemed to exist in paper only.
“This is the horrible state of affairs, an example of how the state government has become so adept at fooling the central government in extracting funds for implementing fake projects for personal benefits,” RPP stated.
It said that projects under ‘Unknown’ category were “extremely difficult” to verify since it pertained to farming and allied activities.
Further, RPP said that even if there has been implementation of projects, it can be “safely assumed” that the private farms of VIPs have been developed instead. “This is illegal because the whole purpose of Tribal Ministry funding is to benefit tribals and poor farmers in the states,” RPP said.
In the light of the above, RPP said that the state government has been guilty of misappropriating money meant for the farmers. “In short, tribal ministry funding equals pocket money of ministers and VIPs,” the party stated.