BJP accuses NPP of misusing GHADC funds

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaSeptember 11, 2024

BJP leader and Tura MDC Bernard N Marak on Wednesday accused the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) for allegedly siphoning off the funds of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) to fund its own party.

“Our coalition partner NPP siphoned off Council fund and led GHADC to bankruptcy. NPP is funding their party with the GHADC money. The amounts sanctioned for the development of Garo Hills area through the agreement signed by ANVC groups has been misappropriated to the extend that GHADC was forced to divert approximately 50 crore from Centre fund for the salary. This violated the guidelines of NITI AYOG,” Marak said in a statement. 

He said the signing of the Agreed Text for Settlement (ATS) by the ANVC and ANVC.B groups took place in Delhi in 2014. 

“This agreement intended to strenghten GHADC but in last 10 years NPP led Government ignored the agreement and hijacked the projects and avoided having meetings with the ANVC groups. The funds were misused and most of the projects were hijacked and others left incomplete,” Marak said while adding “After signing an agreement in 2014 by the ANVC groups, GHADC received a special package of 100.71 crore in 2015-16 for all round development of Garo Hills. After that more funds continued to flow to GHADC till this day which were meant to be implemented by the Rural Local Bodies (RLB) and Urban Local Bodies (ULB) in GHADC but NPP led Executive Committee misappropriated most of these funds and were used to expand NPP to Manipur, Arunachal and other states.”

He further alleged that the NPP led Executive Committee failed to submit the completion report and till today Utilisation Certificate could not be submitted to the Centre Government. 

“Out of 100.71 crore the major projects were reserved for the close aids of CM who did not complete the projects even after 8 years. Council museum project which was awarded to party’s finance secretary practically disappeared. There were also duplication of projects and 40% of the centrally funded projects simply disappeared from the Council treasury. Council today faces fund crunch because of NPP. NPP’s intention is to destroy GHADC,” he said.