DIMAPUR, JANUARY 7 (MExN): Former Chief Minister and current Leader of the Opposition, TR Zeliang today urged the Governor of Nagaland to initiate an immediate investigation into the “delay in release of grant-in- aid amounting to Rs 96 crores under the Rural Development Department, Nagaland.
Following a clarification on the issue by the Rural Development Department on January 6, Zeliang wrote to Governor PB Acharya informing that the centre sanctioned Rs 185.09 crores on November 8, 2017 for Nagaland and a High Level Committee (HLC) was constituted under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary on December 13, 2017.
The HLC had approved Rs. 96 Crores as Grant-in-Aid for the 74 RD Blocks in Nagaland. He informed that the then ruling DAN government could not release the same due to the Model Code of Conduct coming into effect.
Zeliang said that the State Finance Department had released the total amount of Rs. 185.09 Crores to the State Rural Development Department in the month of March, 2018 after formation of the present government.
However, he alleged that the department has “delayed the release of Grant-in-Aid amounting to Rs. 96 Crores although a new Government was installed in March, 2018. Also, sub-allocations were made by the Department after modifying the allocation approved by the HLC contrary to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Finance.”
“This act of the State Department of Rural Development under the present day PDA government is highly questionable and malafide intentions cannot be ruled out,” Zeliang claimed.
He therefore urged the Governor to immediately order an investigation by the State Vigilance Commission.
It may be noted that the Rural Development Department had issued a clarification on January 6 that VDBs are subject to certain procedure/criteria and “as such, Grant-in-aid fund to VDBs cannot be misused by the Department since the DPDB is responsible for all implementation of VDB Schemes.”
In a statement, the department had informed that “all the Blocks under Peren and Dimapur districts and some blocks under Mon have been cleared,” while the “remaining Blocks are yet to complete the required formalities.”
It further clarified that the release of Rs. 96 Crore was “meant for the restoration of backlogs for the year 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2017-18 and not as published.”
