Ranjit demands probe by House panel : Oppn questions CAF&PD Minister
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, March 02 2019: Asserting that a big scam of around Rs 13 crore has emerged in CAF&PD Department, Congress MLA K Ranjit has demanded constitution of a House committee to probe the scam.

Raising a policy cut motion in the course of discussing a demand for grant pertaining to CAF&PD Department in the State Assembly today, K Ranjit said that around 51,278 quintals of rice which must be provided to orphan homes at the subsidised rate of Rs 6.55 per Kg have been misappropriated.

This huge quantity of rice whose value would be around Rs 13 crore in the open market was lifted in paper and the transport charge too has been misappropriated, Ranjit said.

He then asked as to why the Minister concerned was not aware when the huge quantity of rice was misappropriated.

He also questioned the logic of allocating 17,290 quintals of rice for orphan homes located in the newly created district Pherzawl which is quite disproportionate to the total number of inmates.

Imphal West which has much higher number of charitable institutions, hostels and orphan homes was allocated just 878 quintals of rice.

It is a clear indication that there were serious discrepancies on the part of the Minister concerned and the department, Ranjit asserted.

Saying that many MLAs have been facing severe criticisms from the public for not distributing NFSA rice, Ranjit demanded a thorough enquiry into the activities of CAF&PD Department by a House committee.

Abdul Nasir asked when the pending honorariums of fair price shop agents would be released.

He dared to resign from the post of MLA on the day of discussing the appropriation bill if relief amounts sanctioned between 2015 and 2018 were given to genuine beneficiaries at least by 70/80 per cent.

The list of beneficiaries compiled by the Government does not include families whose houses were inundated or damaged by floods, he added.

K Ranjit's proposal to set up a House committee and investigate the scam in CAF&PD Department was defeated by a voice vote.

Yet, CAF&PD Minister Karam Shyam maintained that he has no objection to House committee or CBI probing the matter.

Highlighting the Minister's readiness to probe the matter either by House Committee or CBI, Ranjit insisted on setting up a House Committee.

At this, Speaker Y Khemchand intervened saying that constitution of a House committee requires a comment of the leader of the House (Chief Minister).

Chief Minister N Biren stated that departmental enquiry must be done first before choosing the next course of action.

Ex-Chief Minister O Ibobi opined that there is no harm in setting up a House committee even though the Government is in favour of carrying out a departmental enquiry first.

Ibobi pointed out that it was no easy task to transport such a huge quantity of rice to Pherzawl.

It is crucial to ascertain how many institutions, hostels and students are there in Pherzawl and whether the rice lifted from Imphal actually reached there or not.

Biren maintained that the Government would first carry out a departmental enquiry first and its report would be tabled in the next Assembly session which is due in June/July.

The next course of action may be decided by the Members of the House after perusing the report, Biren said.

He appealed to the House to give the Government an opportunity to enquire into the matter first.

Even as the Speaker remarked that the Chief Minister's proposal was appreciable, Ranjit insisted on setting up a House committee.

Biren went on to assure that the departmental enquiry would be completed within three months but the Congress MLA refused to withdraw his demand.

But his demand was defeated by a voice vote.

Later, the State Assembly unanimously passed seven demands for grants amounting to Rs 484,75,89,000 including Demand No 15 - Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (Rs 79,15,03,000), Demand No 22 - Public Health Engineering (Rs 261,18,61,000), Demand No 37 - Fisheries (Rs 36,65,52,000), Demand No 41 Arts and Culture (27,90,35,000), Demand No 42-State Academy of Training (Rs 5,70,78,000), Demand No 48 - Relief & Disaster Management (Rs 53,24,91,000) and Demand No 49-Economics and Statistics (Rs 20,90,69,000) .

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