HITO alleges misappropriation of over Rs 5.38 Cr JHADC funds

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaApril 16, 2021

The Hynniewtrep Integrated Territorial Organization (HITO) has alleged misappropriation of over Rs 5.38 crore revenue collected by the two check points set up by the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council for detecting illegal trucks within its jurisdiction.

Addressing a news conference on Friday, HITO general secretary Wanbun Dkhar said the two checkpoints – Mookyndur in West Jaintia Hills district and Sonapur in East Jaintia Hills district – have detected over 58,293 vehicles for plying illegally without any trading licenses and other valid documents during the period from September 2018 to February 2020.

The checkpoints are authorized to impose fines of Rs 1,000 or not more than Rs 1 lakh per vehicle if found violating the rules.

“If Rs 1,000 is being imposed as fine, the revenue collected from these illegal trucks would come to around Rs 5.38 crore during this period. To our surprise only Rs 4.83 lakh of the total revenue collected was deposited to the JHADC exchequer,” he alleged.

Wanbun said the big question now is where has this revenue gone when it was supposed to help the JHADC to address the present financial crisis.

According to him, the district council has failed to clear the salary of its employees for the past 11 months.

“If the JHADC authority including the chief executive member and his executive members allow such corrupt practices to continue, we will be compelled to seek legal action against them,” he warned.

Asked, the HITO president Donbok Dkhar said that the organization was able to unearth the alleged corruption through RTI findings and other reliable sources of information.

He said the organization has also decided to leave it to the wisdom of the present executive committee to institute an inquiry and fix responsibility against those involved in misappropriation of the council’s funds.