Panchayati Raj fund swindled in Manipur?
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, July 02 2015 : The annual technical inspection report on Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) in Manipur which was placed before the current Assembly session has expressed strong suspicion of misappropriation of fund.

The release of fund by the Manipur government to the PRIs during 2009-14 was lower than as recommended by the second state finance commission ranging from 27 to 72 per cent.

The report said, "there is a suspected misappropriation of compensation and assignment funds to the tune of Rs 17.47 lakh in Thoubal Zilla Parishad".

The fund had been diverted to inadmissible items like construction of bathrooms, crematorium, buildings, etc.

The officials fear that the funds were thus diverted so that the larger chunk could be swindled.

The Imphal municipal council and Lilong Nagar Panchayat had incurred expenditures of Rs 158.22 lakh for payment of wages to the sweepers against the schedule guidelines.

The report also said that the Lilong Nagar Panchayat is suspected to have misappropriated Rs 19.75 lakh in the name of procuring tubular steel since there is inconsistency in the documents and nature of procurement.

Complaint cell in Panchayati Raj Dept
Rural development and Panchayati Raj department has notified that a complaint cell headed by the Principal Secretary (RD&PR) has been established for the standard operational procedure on operationalising provision of section (27) of MGNREGA.

A Government notification said S Shyamananda SLM/State complaint nodal officer will be responsible for coordination between the districts, administrative department and government of India with regard to complaints received.

The following officials were given the assignments.

They are S Shyamananda SLM (Imphal East district/ state compliant nodal officer), E Robika SLM ( Thoubal district), L Ramesh SLM (Ukhrul), Devjoy Yumnam SLM (Churachanpur), Ziauddin Shah SLM (Bishnupur), Aribam Dayananda Sharma, SLM (Senapati), Ch Sadananda SLM (Chandel), Kamei Chinthuilung SLM (Tamenglong) and Michael Moirangthem SLM (Imphal West) .

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