Imphal, April 03: Taking a serious note of the report that Rs 17.2 crores have been misappropriated in the Power Department, Opposition MLAs today demanded the resignation of Power Minister Phungzathang Tonsing for misleading the House earlier by furnishing 'wrong reports'.

Rising to the demand of the Opposition, Chief Minister O Ibobi, who also holds the Finance portfolio informed the House that the High Powered Committee led by the Chief Secretary has started an inquiry into the allegations.

In a bid to pacify the agitated Opposition members, the Chief Minister assured that if the inquiry pins down anyone, then fitting action would be taken up under the Manipur Public Servants Personal Liability Act.

Earlier, three MPP MLAs O Joy, Dr Ibohalbi and Dr Ng Bijoy raised a call attention motion seeking the attention of the Power Minister over the charges that of the Rs 22 crores released for the Power Department, Rs 17.2 crores have been misappropriated.

O Joy quizzed the Power Minister why the High Powered Committee has started an inquiry into the allegations of misappropriating the sum of Rs 17.2 crores when the Power Minister himself had dismissed the allegations as baseless in the House on March 12 .

The fiery MPP leader demanded to know why the Power Minister tried to mislead the House, when in fact the question of misappropriating the sum of Rs 17.2 had already come to the notice of the Government.

The Power Minister should gracefully step down for trying to mislead the House, advised Joy.

Since the High Powered Committee has already recorded the statement of the then Chief Minister of the Power Department that he was forced to sign a draft proposal to divert the Rs 17.2 crore fund from the Plan heads to Non-Plan heads, the Power Minister too should come under the Manipur Public Servants Liability Act, demanded Joy and added that he should also be answerable to the Committee.

The misappropriated amount is not anyone's private asset but belongs to the people, said the MLA and added that the inquiry of the High Powered Committee should go to its logical conclusion.

Demanding that the Government should recover the misappropriated amount, Joy said that the report of the High Powered Committee as well as the Chief Secretary be called to the House so that they may be examined.

The Minister should not take the members of the House for a ride by furnishing doctored statements, thundered Joy.

Joining in, MLA Dr I Ibohalbi questioned how such a huge amount of Rs 17.2 crore was misappropriated despite the assurance of the Chief Minister that the Government would strictly stick to financial discipline.

The MLA also questioned how the money was diverted from the Plan heads to SPAs and schemes not approved by the Government without the concurrence of the Finance Department.

Dubbing the statements of the Power Minister a lie, the MLA said that on the one hand the Minister has maintained that there is no misappropriation of money while on the other, the High Powered Committee has been asked to investigate the case.

This is contradictory, he noted.

It is a shame that while the Power Department has been crying hoarse and urging the people to pay their power tariff or else their connection would be snapped, on the other hand such a huge amount has been misappropriated, said Ibohalbi.

Demanding stringent action, the MLA suggested that a House Committee be entrusted with the task of investigating the case.

Responding to the call attention motion, Chief Minister O Ibobi informed the House that since suspicions were raised that the amount could have been misappropriated the High Powered Committee led by the Chief Secretary was asked to probe the matter.

Those involved the case will be known once the report is submitted, he explained and added that it is unreasonable to demand the document before the inquiry is finalised.

Giving his version, Phungzathang Tonsing said that the question of misappropriating the amount does not arise.

Phungzathang said that inquiry can always be ordered against Power Department and added the he does not know how much has been misappropriated.

If any wrongs are detected, it would be rectified, he assured the House.

The Power Minister said that a sum of Rs 21.87 was released as normal fund by the Finance Department following a proposal from the Power Department.

For SPA the amount released was Rs 93.7 crores.

The first proposal prepared by the Power Department had certain flaws in sub-allocation, said the Power Minister and added that a second proposal was drafted which was passed.

The Power Minister stuck to his stand that no amount has been misappropriated.

He also claimed that he never met the Chief Engineer as reported and added that it is not only the Power Department which is under the scanner of the High Powered Committee but also other Departments.

It is just that the cases of the other Departments have not been reported in the newspapers.

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