Kohima, May 14 (NEPS): The former Finance Minister K Therie has today denied that he hadn't produced "White Paper" on the utilization of the central grant of Rs 365 crore.

He said he had already issued "White Paper" on Rs 365 crore on August 25 last year when the Opposition Congress demanded for the same (White paper).

Talking to reporters here at his official residence today, the former Finance Minister who had resigned from the Rio Ministry on the issue of controversial one time central grant of Rs 365 crore said he had not hidden anything about it.

He said he was prepared to face any scrutiny if any agency or committee wanted to.

Therie said copies of the "White Paper" were not only circulated to all the local papers and other media agencies but also to Governor, Chief Minister, Assembly Speaker, Opposition Leader, Parliamentary Secretaries and MLAs of the State last year.

Therefore the charges hurled by Opposition that he failed to produce the "White Paper" on the expenses of the Rs 365 crore did not arise.

Regretting on the unrealistic allegations of the opposition, the former Finance Minister said they should not go on blaming somebody by quoting Rs 365 crore just for the sack of being opposition.

There should be some basis for the allegations and they should look into the reality, he stated.

Therie, however, said the amount (Rs 365 crore) was released to 74 departments in the State and further added detailed utilization reports would be available with the concerned departments.

The concerned departments were answerable to the purpose of the expenditure and to whom the payment was made.

The Finance Department did not have the records of detailed utilization report as the proposals were in their respective departments' files, he pointed out.

It would be tantamount to encroaching to somebody's authority if he started asking detailed reports of some departments unless they were prepared to do so.

"How can I ask a Cabinet Minister to produce his department's expenditure details," Therie stated.

If the Opposition wanted to know, they should pin point the particular concerned department, he added.

He said any person having further doubts on Rs 365 crore's expenditure should pin point to which payment or a department they suspected.

The Finance department itself did not have Demand Head in the Demand for Grant which was voted by the Assembly, the former Finance Minister added.

On NPF president's charges that he had violated the party discipline, Therie said he hadn't violated any rule of the party.

"We have the inner party democracy and article 10 of the constitution allows any member of the party to express his or her views," Therie said.

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