Dimapur, March 21 (EMN): The Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation (Acaut) has asked the Nagaland government authorities, the finance establishment particularly, to 'dig' deeper into the recent "mess" that allegedly had a pensioners' association charging pensioners INR 2000 each.
The Acaut issued a press release on Wednesday listing out a number of questions the answers to which the organisations implied must have to be answered by the finance authorities and the pensioners' association.
In response to reports about the fee being charged from pensioners, the organisation stated to have approached the District Treasury office in Dimapur 'twice' to make inquiries. They met with the Dimapur District Pensioners Association (DDPA) too. According to the DDPA, their organization was voluntary; no one is forced to join and it was there simply to assist pensioners, the press release stated.
"DDPA claimed the payment of rupees 2000 was purely voluntary by its members since DDPA had hired a financial consultant to tabulate the revised ROP (revision of pay)," the Acaut stated.
"Not entirely satisfied with the explanations of the DDPA," the anti-corruption group then headed for the senior treasury officer (STO). The officer was stated to have said that the Treasury department "did not receive the government order or the office memorandum from the Finance department but only got it on 14th march 2018 after they went to Kohima to collect it."
According to the Acaut's statement the STO had said 'It’s the duty of the Treasury department to tabulate and disburse the pension and that the department nor the government had not (sic) authorized the DDPA (to) distribute the forms which was given by the Finance department and that soon the Treasury department would be tabulating and distributing the forms.'
'The STO further said that outside tabulation of financial assessment and submission by any non-governmental body will not be accepted by the department and the collection of INR 2000 by the DDPA is illegal.'
From the meeting with the DDPA and STO, the ACAUT said to 'sense serious anomalies.' The group raised these questions: If the Treasury department had not authorized the DDPA to distribute the forms 'in OM of finance department annexure II,' why was it that the DDPA was distributing it.
"Is it not the duty of Treasury department to tabulate the ROP and disburse the pension, then why is it allowing an NGO to do it right under its nose and in its premises?" the Acaut queried.
Further, if the Treasury was going to issue the forms and 'redo the whole arduous exercise of tabulation,' who would compensate for the 'hours of ordeal that our seniors have been put through, who have to once again take the whole trouble of going through the nightmarish ordeal of standing in the queue for hours.'
Bad money
The Acaut also threw an askance at the pensioners' association: 'If one were to assume that out of the approximately 20,000 pensioners from Dimapur district even if five thousand pensioners paid INR 2000 each then it would amount to INR one crore.'
Where then, the Acaut asked, is the money going and why would the DDPA need that much money.
Further, the Acaut asked why the DDPA was giving out forms to pensioners for INR 10 per forms when it was supposed to be given out for free by the Treasury department.
"Why is it that in other districts there is no such collection, that the Dimapur district should collect is there," it added.
"The ACAUT Nagaland is left with no doubt that this collection of INR 2000 from pensioners is nothing but a scam to siphon off money from our senior citizens which is simply unforgiveable. The ACAUT Nagaland is also of the opinion that if one were to dig deeper into the matter there would also be many bogus beneficiaries," the organisation stated.
The DDPA is asked to immediately refund the INR 2000 that was collected from the pensioners including the INR 10 for the forms 'which it had collected illegally,' the press release stated.
To the government: The Acaut has appealed to the Finance commissioner to consider the extraordinary circumstance of the ROP coinciding with the financial year's end.
'There more time should be given to rectify and redo this mess and for pensioners to do it with lesser stress,' the anti-graft group added.
