Dimapur, March 5 (EMN): The Against Corruption & Unabated Corruption (ACAUT) has responded to the ‘clarification’ issued by the Nagaland Finance Commissioner. The ACAUT issued a response to the department on Sunday simply listing out a number of instances suggesting that the commissioner had not answered specific queries.
The organisation’s statement had with it screenshots of records and details of finances, with questions revolving primarily around the Finance department’s not responding to direct questions; withheld salary to government workers such as teachers, and the claims of the government that it was undergoing the oft-repeated ‘shortage’ of funds, among others.
“Be as it may be,” the ACAUT stated simply, “the Finance Commissioner will have to pointedly answer the various queries raised by the ACAUT...”
The first query that the organisation placed was this: A total of Rs. 1,182 crore for 76 CSS (centrally-sponsored schemes) for the period 2016-2017 was released to the state’s Finance department by the centre. Meaning, the statement pointed out, the Nagaland government gave almost Rs. 120 crore as its 10% State Share.
“In 2015-16, the state share was roughly Rs. 135 Crore, or 10% of Rs. 1,353.52 crore. Therefore, the combined State Share figures for the last two years, that is, 2015-17, comes to roughly Rs. 250 crores,” the ACAUT stated.
The question is, it asked the government, “When the state government could contribute a massive Rs. 250 Crores for 218 CSS for the periods 2015-17, why were the teachers treated differently and made to undergo untold suffering with the lame excuse that the state government didn’t have enough funds to give its RMSA and SSA shares?”
The ACAUT has termed the matter a “foregone conclusion that the lion’s share of the 218 CSS are ghost projects which will never be implemented on the ground...meaning, the CSS is only a means to enrich politicians and bureaucrats.”
The Finance Commissioner has been asked how the stated anomaly was being repeated year after year “at the cost of the teachers and the student community?”
Secondly, the statement continued, one must have to consider that the 14th Finance Commission had released 5229.56 crore (2015-2017) to the state, “parked with the Finance department...”
‘What prevented the utilization of this amount to pay for the 10% state share towards the release of SSA and RMSA funds,’ the ACAUT asked the department.
Thirdly, the ACAUT declared, the Finance Commissioner has yet to answer why Hindi teachers were still being denied salary for the past nine months, because the Hindi teachers’ salary component comes under 100% CSS.
Similarly, “very importantly”, the ACAUT stated again, the Finance Commissioner has yet to “pointedly refute” the serious charge that the Finance department was in the “unhealthy business” of deducting 10% commission on all the developmental funds released to the concerned departments.
The organisation has placed a challenge to the Finance Commissioner: “If the allegation is untrue, the Finance Commissioner has a bounden duty to refute it but hiding behind ‘wild allegation’ counter-argument has only given rise to suspicion that perhaps the allegation is true.”
