'Charges against O Henry baseless'
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 03 2021:
The charges levelled against the former Minister Okram Henry regarding the issue of distribution of rice under various schemes of the Government are baseless, said PRO of O Henry, Boyesh Kom in a statement, today.
Refuting the claims made by Md Feroz, president of BJP Wangkhei Mandal yesterday, Boyesh Kom said that all documents are in the official records and there is no harm in probing the matter by a fact finding committee.
He continued that after O Henry was elected as the MLA of Wangkhei AC, around 65 percent of the population of the Constituency was registered as NFSA beneficiaries through mass enrolment conducted after thorough checking.
The due share of rice from March till November, 2020 was distributed and sometimes additional quantities of rice was bought from open markets and wholesale dealers to cover as many individuals as possible.
Also the share of rice from January till March, 2021 were lifted and distributed accordingly and all the detailed records for the same are available in the departments concerned, he added.
Regarding the issue of linking the cards with Aadhaar, Boyesh said that the required documents were collected along with the help of local clubs and were submitted to the office of DSO, Imphal East however the process could not be done for all the beneficiaries due to lack of staff and other issues and also many cards were rejected by the Ministry due to certain anomalies in the information provided.
He further stated that the amount taken for registration or renewal of NFSA cards are taken by the DSO office and not by O Henry and none of the NFSA cards are withheld by the former Minister.
Further he appealed to all the concerned to work for the welfare of the people amid the grim situation of COVID-19 rather than finding baseless faults.
Stating that there are no adequate quarantine centres in Wangkhei AC to effectively combat the pandemic, he urged the MLA concerned to take up responsibilities for the same.