Morung File Photo
Al Ngullie
Morung Express News
Dimapur | July 1
The Vigilance & Anti-Corruption unit of the Nagaland State Vigilance Commission has commenced preliminary investigations into alleged corruption and mismanagement in the Dimapur Municipal Council (DMC), a top official has said Wednesday, June 20. As part of the action, the commission has confiscated a number of unspecified but reportedly important “documents” from the DMC’s office in Dimapur.
Much new information is tumbling out concerning the current crisis in the DMC. They specifically concern with the Vigilance Commission’s recent swoop, the circumstances that prompted the confiscation of official documents, and the ongoing tussle over the DMC’s Chief Executive Officer’s chair.
The documents – understood to be associated with finance – are currently under scrutiny and would take time before the government can comment on them publicly, the State’s administration said. While an assurance about government action remains to be seen as yet, the State has nonetheless assured that anyone found guilty of corruption in the municipal institution would be “booked”.
“Since there is a serious complaint we had to start the preliminary inquiries. There were complaints lodged saying ‘there is misappropriation of funds; there is corruption’ and even complaints that revenues were not collected, parking lots etcetera,” Ex-officio Vigilance Commissioner in-charge Lalthara told The Morung Express, Wednesday evening.
“We have collected important documents and if we see there is corruption, we will book the guilty.”
Also, if reports are at all true that some municipal officials secured anticipatory bail orders when the commission began moving in, it may have been out of sheer panic, some observers say. To the query that some municipal leaders have been running to the courts for anticipatory bail, Lalthara expressed surprise – “We did not register any case against any individuals in fact; we have just started preliminary investigations; we are not registering any case against individuals but pre-investigating the council for now,” said the Chief Secretary of Nagaland.
The official mentioned corruption and fund misuse among the ‘complaints’ the commission purportedly received. Other complaints included alleged manipulation of building allotments in a number of commercial centers in Dimapur, specifically that of New Market ‘east block.’ Another related complaint Lalthara mentioned was that the council had overridden provisions for a parking lot in Dimapur and how that space was allegedly leased to individuals for “lakhs”. Media reports have tagged the allegations on Chief Executive Officer of the DMC, Imtirenla Jamir.
Interestingly, the CEO is also in the eye of the storm for another reason – refusal to leave her position as chief executive of the civic organization even though the Government of Nagaland had transferred her in a seemingly routine bureaucratic reshuffle recently.
The two controversies are widely being perceived by citizens and observers as connected. However, Lalthara disclosed that the Vigilance Commission had been scanning the DMC even much before the transfer of Jamir or designating Orenthung Lotha, ADC of Bhandari, as CEO. “It was prior to her transfer in fact,” Lalthara said. “When the government got wind of this (allegation of corruption, mismanagement), the government felt to change the incumbent before the inquiry was launched,” he said.
