BJP demands CBI probe into alleged corruption in GHADC, JHADC

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaSeptember 8, 2020

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged massive corruption in the implementation of the Centre’s special assistance grants (SAG) by the two autonomous district councils in the Jaintia Hills and Garo Hills region.

The BJP, which is backing the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government, has also threatened to withdraw support, if no action is taken to stop such corruption practices in these district councils.

Both the executive committees in the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC) and Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) are currently led by the ruling National People’s Party (NPP).

“In the light of these irregularities and misuse of the SAG funds, I have already written to the Centre for instituting a CBI inquiry into the whole issue and to punish the culprits as per law,” BJP state president Ernest Mawrie told reporters on Tuesday.

Stating that there is blatant corruption in the two ADCs, Mawrie said over Rs 20 crores of the SAG funds sanctioned for the JHADC have been diverted for payment of salaries to its employees, which is a clear violation of the guidelines.   

Similarly, he said GHADC has allotted a documentary project costing over Rs 5.82 crore to one Twinkle Newar Sangma for supplying of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials to the Council.  “Surprisingly, the documentary film has only two episodes,” he said.

Of the Rs 1,000 crore sanctioned by the Centre to ADCs in the Northeast region during 2015-16, the KHADC has received Rs 133.12 crore while GHADC and JHADC with Rs 100.71 crore and Rs 33.57 crore respectively.

Again on March 7, 2019, the Centre has released SAG funds of Rs 34.87 crore to KHADC, 31.40 crore to GHADC and Rs 11.62 crore to JHADC.

“It is very unfortunate that the SAG funds, which are meant for the development of the areas under the two ADCs, have been misused by the ruling party ie the NPP,” he said.

Mawrie also threatened by saying, “If such corruption practices are allowed to continue in the two ADCs, we may even decide to withdraw support.”

The BJP leader has also slammed the NPP and its main ally the United Democratic Party (UDP) for sidelining the party’s MDCs in the two ADCs. The BJP has 3 MDCs in JHADC and 7 MDCs in GHADC.

“It is also sad that inspite of the fact that we are part of the MDA government, our MDCs in these two ADCs were made to sit in the opposition bench,” he said.

On the other hand, BJP spokesperson Bernard N Marak alleged that of the Rs 100.71 crore, the GHADC has submitted utilization certificates (UCs) showing that implementation of projects worth around Rs 84.79 crore have been completed and Rs 15.19 crore is still pending.

“However, if you examine the work (as claimed by the GHADC), you will find that most of the projects do not even exist,” he said.  

On the project related to the documentary film, Marak said that the GHADC has claimed that 60 percent of the work has been completed when in reality it is otherwise.

“There is no department as IEC in GHADC but somehow, this work was allotted to a contractor by civil works (GHADC). The contractor is somehow related to James K Sangma’s wife and the work is being carried out by Saidul Khan and David D Shira, which astonishingly is not in the knowledge of the contractor,” the BJP leader said while quoting information received from the GHADC.

He also alleged that while the EC of the GHADC is busy in corruption practices, the employees are left without salary for the past 28 months.

Meanwhile, JHADC MDC Lakhon Biam said that JHADC has misused the SAG funds for payment of salary but used the council’s own fund to help people supporting the ruling MDCs.

“Apart from violating the Ministry of Finance guidelines for implementation of the SAG, the EC led by Thombor Shiwat has given Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh each of the beneficiaries (supporters of ruling MDCs). I have raised this issue in the floor of the House as to the reason behind this amount being deposited in the bank accounts of the MDCs and the reply given was that the beneficiaries have no bank accounts,” he said adding, this indicates that there is big corruption in the JHADC.

He said that the EC in its reply during the recently concluded session said that all estimates for projects proposed under SAG does not require to be countersign by the technical competent authority for sending to the state level committee to get its approval.

“This shows that there is no transparency in the implementation of the central special grant. We therefore want to send a clear message to the EC that we do not want the various projects under SAG to suffer the same fate like the Jowai market complex,” he said.