Dimapur, March 4 (EMN): The NPF has condemned what it stated was the silence and failure of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio to provide answers to queries reportedly raised by TR Zeliang during the budget session.
The party’s press bureau issued a statement on Monday claiming that Zeliang had pointed out ‘anomalies’ in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) where the state’s growth rate showed diminishing returns.
When asked to explain the diminishing return, it stated, the chief minister had “failed to come up with any answers” inside the Assembly. Hence, he was asked to publish the answers in the local newspapers, it stated. “However, nothing has been clarified in the local dailies till date. It is to be noted that before the introduction of GST, NPF-led DAN government had introduced online system on Central Sales Tax (CST) and the growth rate was 19.60% in 2017-18.”
Rio has also failed to clarify through the newspapers a query from Zeliang about how the remaining amount of INR 514.75 cr. after deducting re-imbursement amount of INR 220.09 cr. from the total ‘Additional Fund’ of INR 735.84 cr. was spent, and through which department, according to the NPF.
Concerning ‘Kiphire Aspirational District’, it stated that Zeliang had asked Rio to clarify why the release of INR 1 cr. was delayed. But the query was neither answered inside the Assembly nor clarified in the newspapers, it stated.
Referring to the chief minister’s suggestion that the government could minimise the number of state employees, the NPF stated that Zeliang had wanted to know how the state government intended to reduce the number. The chief minister did not provide any answer, it stated.
“Both the governor and chief minister claimed timely release of student scholarship in the last concluded session but however, the amount was received by the state government only in December 2018. The student community is yet to receive the final instalment of the backlog for 2017-2018 while payment against the year 2018-2019 is still pending which the chief minister, intentionally or otherwise, failed to clarify in his reply.
“As per Budget 2019-20, an amount of INR 53.75 cr. was released by government of India under SPA during the early part of 2018. Another instalment of INR 226.81 cr. was released during January 2019 against the backlog of SPA. The Budget presented however failed to provide details on how it was utilised.”
Again, it stated, Rio did not provide any answer when asked to clarify in the Assembly. The party has asked the chief minister to clarify the queries in the local newspapers “as the government is answerable on any issue of public importance.”
