RPP highlights anomalies in DUDA projects

Dimapur, October 16 (MExN): The Rising People’s Party (RPP) on Saturday highlighted work orders and amount sanctioned under the Underdeveloped Area Programme (UDAP) and Border Area Development Programme (BADP) of the Department of Underdeveloped Areas (DUDA), Nagaland.

Stating that the central government is pumping in ‘colossal amount’ of funds every year for the development of eastern Nagaland and other pockets in the state, including international border areas, the RPP observed that “…had all the money been judiciously utilized, eastern Nagaland should be decently developed by now.”

The Party informed that it has, in its possession, thousands of work-orders amounting to hundreds of crores issued from 2011-12 till date for works under the two schemes.

“Instead of developing priority sectors such as hospitals, schools, sporting facilities, and good roads, etc., precious funds seem to have been spent on constructing endless retaining walls, footsteps, culverts, helipads, etc,” the RPP stated.

The RPP said that, “It is unbelievable that DUDA contractors should be able to construct so many guest houses in remote areas with the modest amount of Rs. 4,75,000/- only.”

Also, as per the work-orders, eastern Nagaland should be the highest exporter of ginger and cardamom in the entire North-east by now, the RPP asserted.

It further highlighted that the same firm or firms keep getting multiple work-orders year after year to construct endless rostrums, guest houses, culverts, playgrounds, footsteps, etc and alleged that, “There is no other explanation for such absurdity except that there seems to be a syndicate involving Ministers and power-brokers in the government…”

As such, the RPP concluded that the state government does not have a blue-print for the development of eastern Nagaland and the border areas. It accused the DUDA of simply existing “to inflate the bank balance of individuals,” adding that the allegation of DUDA being the ‘pocket-money department’ of Nagaland is ‘amply true’.

Informing that the Party would be serializing year-wise amount allocation to DUDA in the days and weeks to come, the RPP provided the 2011-12 funding/work pattern in a press release issued on October 16. (See table)

According to the department, the amount allocated for 2011-12 is Rs. 49.65 crore. While the initial idea was to publish the names of the projects (year-wise), the RPP said that due to the large amount of information and want of space, it has opted to publish the names of the firms instead.