ATSUM suspects ulterior motive
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, November 14 2020:
Taking serious note of the strong pressure exerted by incumbent ADC Members on the Government to get their term of office further extended, the ATSUM has expressed strong suspicion whether the ADC Members have been seeking time to swindle the unused development fund available with the six ADCs.
Speaking to media persons at Adimjati Shiksha Ashram, Chingmeirong here this afternoon, ATSUM finance secretary Kakai Singsit said that several crores were sanctioned to the six ADCs by both the State Government and the Central Government to take and implement programmes in the hill districts during the last 5 years.
But the performance of the ADCs in terms of implementing development programmes is quite disappointing.
Except for a few, no development works can be seen, Kakai remarked.
The term of the incumbent ADCs expired in May this year but the same term was extended by six months till November in accordance with a decision taken by the State Cabinet which was based on the recommendation of the Hill Areas Committee (HAC).
Even though ATSUM has many objections against extension of the incumbent ADCs' term, it remained silent and tolerated the extension in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kakai said.
In the meantime, reports were received that majority of the ADC Members were exerting strong pressure on the Government to get their term of office further extended by another six months but this time ATSUM decided to stand firm against further extension of the term of office.
Although several modes of agitation were lined up, the same were kept on hold following the Government's assurance there would not be any further extension, he said.
A deeper enquiry revealed that a huge amount of fund meant for development programmes is lying unused with the ADCs and there are 776 vacant posts which must be filled up, said the ATSUM finance secretary.
The intensive lobbying by ADC Members to get then-term further extended evokes a strong suspicion whether the lobby is driven by an ulterior motive to swindle the unused development fund, Kakai said.
As per an order issued by the Government on March 26, 2016, an amount of Rs 143.77 crore was sanctioned to the ADCs under the 14th Finance Commission, he said.
Out of this amount, around Rs 129.39 crore has been spent.
Again, out of Rs 100 crore allocated to the ADCs on August 18 this year under the 15th Finance Commission, around Rs 25.70 crore has been spent.
This implies that there is a substantial amount of fund with the ADCs which have not been utilised, Kakai said.
He then urged the Government to enquire into how development funds were utilised and bring out a white paper.
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