Says Food & Civil Supplies Dept in denial mode
EMN
DIMAPUR, APRIL 19
The State Food & Civil Supplies department on Tuesday said that it has yet to receive any allegation of the “misappropriation of Rs 402 crore which is claimed to be unearthed by the CAG in its report of 2015” either from the CAG or the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly, which it added, “is the authority to examine the CAG report.”
This was informed in a press statement issued by the Secretary of Food & Civil Supplies, Ramongo Lotha today. “The department is aware that there has been some delay in the implementation of NFSA in Nagaland, basically due to resource crunch faced by the state. It would be quite difficult for Nagaland to arrange the state’s share which will amount to Rs 1009.14 lakh in the first year, and Rs 759 lakh in the subsequent years.
“That is why the state had earlier proposed to the government of India to allow a special funding pattern of 90:10 for Nagaland instead of the general pattern of 75:25. However, this was finally not agreed to thereby leading to certain delays in implementation of the NFSA in the state.”
The secretary also stated that the Nagaland cabinet had already decided to implement the NFSA in the state much before the visit of the Union Minister. “The department will be commencing online allocation for the districts of Kohima and Dimapur by May, 2016, the NFSA roll out for Kohima and Dimapur districts by June 2016 and for the entire State by July, 2016, followed by implementation of Fair Price Shop Automation in Peren district on pilot basis.”
On the allegation from mass based organizations like ACAUT and NVCO that “non implementation of NFSA and non receipt of Hill Transport Subsidy have deprived beneficiaries of several thousand metric tonnes of food grains,” he branded the same as totally absurd.
His reasoning was that “non implementation of NFSA till date has not affected normal supply of food grains in any way, and normal allocation has been continuing all these months.”
The secretary also stated that the availability or non-availability of HTS also has not affected Subsidized Good Grains Delivery though it is a fact that pending claims of transporters under HTS to the tune of Rs 14 crore is yet to be cleared by the FCI. “This is also to clarify that Mid Day Meal Scheme does not fall within the purview of the department of Food & Civil Supplies.”
