BJP demands probe into Loktak scandal
Dubbed Ibobi as 'broad day light robber' of public funds
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, November 03 2012:
Terming the Loktal Lake scandal involving crores of rupees as a 'very serious issue', BJP today demanded setting up of an Enquiry Commission under a sitting Judge of the Supreme Court of India to probe into the matter at the earliest.
Addressing media persons at the Nityaipat Chuthek office of BJP, Manipur State Unit here in Imphal today, Chandra Shekhar Rao, Zonal Organisation Secretary, North East-in-charge, said that the issue of the Loktak Lake scandal is considered 'very serious' by the BJP and as such the matter will be raised in the winter session of the Parliament.
He further demanded that the present status report on Loktak Lake Phumdis clearance contract given to K-Pro Infra Works Pvt Ltd by the State Government should be produced by the concerned authority and made it public.
The state government should immediately release the details of the promoters of K-Pro Infra Works Pvt Ltd including the full form of the firm at the earliest.
He also pressed for a special audit enquiry by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on the Loktak Lake scandal and the setting up of an Enquiry Commission under a sitting Judge of the Supreme Court of India at the earliest.
Chandra Shekhar Rao said that BJP has been raising the issue of Loktak Lake Management and Conservation Project taken up by SPA government with funding from Planning Commission of India in the Parliament as well as through media from time to time.
Under this project, an amount of Rs 224 crores have been sanctioned and released for clearance of Phumdis without showing any sign of improvement in the condition of the lake.
He also charged Chief Minister O Ibobi with siphoning off the amount released for the clearance of phumdis by awarding the said work to an incompetent and nondescript company called K-Pro Infra Works Pvt Ltd.
In the name of clearing the phumdis from Loktak Lake, the rights of the fish farmers have been deprived by evicting them from their floating huts in a hush-hush manner by LDA under instruction from the Chief Minister.
He alleged that the fund to improve the condition of the lake has not been utilised in the way it should be by the Chief Minister of Manipur.
The Chief Minister of Manipur has been managing the award the tender to his own agency, the K-Pro Infra Works Pvt Ltd, which interestingly was also the lone bidder in the tender process.
"This is nothing but a broad day light robbery of public fund", the BJP leader said, while pointing out that Loktak Development fund is in the news many times, questioning the integrity of Chief Minister O Ibobi.
"The Chief Minister of Manipur, in connivance with a coterie of his few henchmen, has been siphoning off funds meant for the general public of Manipur for the last one decade", Chandra Shekhar Rao charged adding that his involvement in many tender works through his close agencies and firms in violation of Central Public Works Department (CPWD) norms and State PWD rules has now become an open secret.
Pointing out that the inauguration of many incomplete buildings in Manipur has become an order of the day, Chandra Shekhar Rao maintained that more inauguration means adding more funds to the personnel account of Ibobi.
The Assembly Secretariat, the City Convention Centre, the Inter State Bus Terminus, the High Court and the Manipur Film Development Corporation (MFDC), which involved crores of rupees, were inaugurated by the Prime Minister and the Chairperson of UPA, although these projects are not even in their final stage of completion, he contended.
"There is no dearth of fund in the completion process of the projects but what went wrong in the system is the big question", he said and added that all the agencies that are taking up the projects are inseparable partners of Ibobi.
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