Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, March 25 2010:
In yet another case of misappro-priation of public fund by Government officials, it has been discovered that more than Rs one crore has been embezzled by officials of the Manipur Khadi and Village Industries Board (KVIB) in cahoot with some beneficia-ries from the margin money of the loan amount for Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP).
Following reports that a large percentage of the fund sanctioned by the Mumbai based Khadi and Village Industries Commission to the Manipur KVIB during 2005-06 for generation of self employment in rural areas has been misappropriated, the State Government directed the State Vigilance Commission to conduct an investigation.
It was during the course of investigation by the Vigilance Commission that different acts of fradulence and embezzlement of the huge fund was discovered.
The REGP aimed at generating self employment in rural areas was launched by the Centre all over the country from April 1, 1995 .
As per the norms of the programme, after the rele-vant bank has sanctioned loan amount to a beneficiary, the bank would provide a claim form to the KVIB to pay margin money to the be-neficiary.
With this, the KVIB should deposit margin money of the beneficiaries at the bank for two years.
However, in this particular instance, no margin money was deposited at the bank.
The margin money is 30 per cent of the loan amount which should be paid by the Manipur KVIB as subsidy.
The Manipur KVIB paid margin money to 39 REGP beneficiaries of 2005-06 through UBI Kakching, UBI AT Line (North AOC), UBI Churachandpur, UBI Man-tripukhri, UBI Singjamei, Punjab National Bank Iril-bung, Punjab National Bank Imphal and UBI Ukhrul.
However, none of these banks made any sanction to pay loans for the same programme.
Neither did they issue any claim form for margin money to the KVIB.
This was established during the invesitgation.
It has also been unearthed that margin money amounting to Rs 1,01,67,000 was withdrawn by officials of KVIB in connivance with some beneficiaries.
The investigation has revealed that former Chief Executive Officer of KVIB L Beikul issued cheques to the beneficiaries through the cashier.
The huge amount of margin money was encashed from the Manipur Rural Bank located at Kei-shampat.
As per records available with the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Mumbai, an amount of Rs 1793.36 had been spent in Manipur as margin money till March 31, 2005 .
Acting on the discoveries made by the Vigilance Commission, the Chief Secretary has issued due instruction to take up a criminal case against the former CEO and the cashier and also to conduct a departmental enquiry so that the fraudulent officials are given major penalties.
The Chief Secretary has also given consent to invoke the Manipur Public Servant Personal Liability Act in order to recover the embezzled amount, provided the Act was in force at the time of misappropriating the public fund.
The Vigilance Commission is investigation into the details of the beneficiaries who connived with KVIB officials in embezzling the public fund.