Dimapur, April 8 (EMN): The Nagaland Public Rights Awareness and Action Forum (NPRAAF) has once again claimed that it is in pursuit of establishing a branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Nagaland.
A press release from the group on Sunday stated that it would meet the ‘joint director of CBI at Guwahati’ for said objective. “NPRAAF sees no reason why CBI office cannot be set up in Nagaland when all the states in India including union territories has (sic) CBI branch office,” the press release read.
According to the group, politicians and bureaucrats in Nagaland were under the wrong impression that the CBI has ‘limited legal jurisdiction’ in the state of Nagaland and ‘that without cabinet sanction the CBI cannot take up cases directly.’
However, it stated that the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act of 1946 has vested ‘all power’ on the CBI to ‘carry out its duty anywhere in Indian states’ including Nagaland. The same Act has empowered the CBI to arrest, investigate, persecute and sentence corrupt persons, it stated.
“NPRAAF will explore possibilities to provide land to establish CBI headquarters in Nagaland if the state government is not willing to facilitated CBI to Nagaland (sic) for any reason,” the statement read further.
The group informed that a five-member delegation of the NPRAAF had met with ‘several top central bureaucrats’ from April 2 to the 6th in Shastri Bhawan and Krishi Bhawan at New Delhi. “The delegation apprised the officers of dismal implementation of centrally sponsored programs in Nagaland without following Govt of India guidelines in most cases and without transparency and accountability which has resulted in massive mis-use of public funds.
“NPRAAF therefore requested the officers to continually monitor the centrally sponsored schemes so as to ensure no centrally sponsored schemes are implemented without following proper GOI guidelines for effective implementation,” the press release stated.
In a message to ‘officers of various departments’ of the Nagaland government, the group stated that it ‘will be in touch with the respective ministry and report any deficiency and corruption in implementation of public welfare schemes.’
The group’s representatives will meet officials from the ministry of Home Affairs at North Block and the ministry of Health and Family welfare at Nirman Bhawan in May to ‘give a picture of development in both the departments so that every fund sanctioned to the state will be done with proper scrutiny unlike in the past,’ it stated.
