Agartala: Leader of Opposition Ratan Lal Nath on Thursday demanded emergency audit of the Tripura government’s accounts by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) following alleged financial irregularities and indiscipline.
Addressing the media here Mr Nath alleged that the state government had already released Rs 213 crore in advance for the financial years 2012-13 and 2013-14 to various departments, violating the norms.
”I personally collected 26 payment orders but the amount of advance payment is actually more than Rs 500 crore, which is not only illegal but also an instance of how the state government is siphoning off public fund,” Mr Nath said.
He added that the Left Front government had made state finance secretary a victim by criticizing a constitutional body like the 13th Finance Commission.
He alleged that Finance Secretary Monaj Kumar had released a booklet without any authority, which had published fabricated facts and figures of the 13th FC and directly accused the FC of the dismal financial condition of the state.
The booklet alleged that the 13th FC had deprived Tripura and that led to severe financial crisis in the state but did not mention the actual memorandum of the state submitted to FC. Also the booklet distorted the facts and interpretation to justify the state’s failure to present the financial discipline and obligation before the Commission, he said.
”While the 12th FC had awarded only Rs 49 crore for state specific need, as per demand, the 13th FC had hiked it to Rs 500 crore. But the booklet published by the Finance Secretary did not explain the issue properly,” Mr Nath said and added that the state government illegally accused the FC of the present crisis.
Referring to the implementation of the sixth pay commission recommendation for state government employees, Nath opined because of the ‘apathy’ of the Left Front government, two lakh employees had been financially deprived and in next five years the employees’ salary would rise by only 0.89 per cent in Tripura against 9.17 per cent in Chattisgarh and 5.98 per cent in West Bengal and Mizoram.
He demanded immediate resignation of Finance Minister Badal Choudhury for his failure to maintain financial discipline in the state and proceedings against Finance Secretary Manoj Kumar for challenging and accusing the 13th FC.
The 13th FC organised 123 meetings during it’s tenure besides, seeking views and memorandums from all the state governments, political parties, economists, trade bodies and other concerned several times before finalising the recommendations.
But the state government did not speak anything to any of the forum, Nath underlined and said even during the debate in Parliament prior to acceptance MPs from Tripura kept silent.
Meanwhile, Mr Chowdhury reiterated that 13th FC did not take a realistic approach while fixing its outlay because ”we had sought Rs 26,848.76 crore. But it has awarded only Rs 16,349.13 crore for the next five years”. Chowdhury said the FC did not adopt a realistic approach while fixing the state’s outlay to meet the salary head expenditure.
He alleged that the FC deprived Tripura’s legitimate gap grants and Ministry of Finance had been refusing to allow market borrowing besides, other funding hurdles and added that the state had Rs 5000 crore loan burden now. ”In case of five states 13th FC awarded 150 per cent hike in gap grant, 15 states were awarded 100-150 per cent hike and five others were hiked little less than 100 per cent. But Tripura was awarded only 55.96 per cent along with Himachal Pradesh 50.11 and Uttara-khand 66.54 per cent,” Chowdhury pointed out. (UNI)