‘Statement against Bakshi signed under duress’
TURA: A former Project Manager of Meghalaya Rural Development Society (MRDS) engaged in the Total Sanitation Campaign project in East Garo Hills District has accused Deputy Commissioner Vijay Kr. Mantri for the problems faced in the implementation of the scheme while giving a clean chit to Pravin Bakshi.
Ex-Project Manager Perry Marak issued a statement to The Shillong Times mentioning that during the time of Pravin Bakshi as Deputy Commissioner of East Garo Hills the implementation of the project was going on ‘smoothly’ until Mantri took over.
Marak also claimed that he along with MRDS Finance and Accounts Officer, Jamuna Marak, signed on the statement blaming Bakshi to escape the daily ‘blame’ and ‘torture’.
“All statements we made were just to escape from this daily blame. We have refuted it in an affidavit which is a bigger document,” claimed Marak.
It may be mentioned that Perry Marak and Jamuna Marak gave statements to a magistrate in Williamnagar, in October last year, blaming Bakshi as the man who introduced supplier Sohan Kumar Sah to take up the supply order without giving publicity to the tender notice.
Perry in his statement, had also mentioned that Bakshi instructed him to release the full amount of one crore seventy lakh rupees to the supplier even though most of the materials were never supplied. Jamuna, in her statement to the magistrate, mentioned that she had objected to the full payment because cement, paint, brushes, lime and iron rods were never supplied while the supplier only provided toilet pans and plastic doors.
Both the MRDS officials and the supplier surfaced in Tura to file an affidavit in the first week of May, this year, giving a clean chit to Bakshi and blaming Mantri for the fiasco. They also claimed to have made the statements before the magistrate in Williamnagar under ‘duress’.
“We signed the MoU for the school toilets as there was a Supreme Court order that all school toilets should be completed by 2012 and the Deputy Commissioner reposed faith in us as an organization that has good standing and works very closely with people. We also took it up as a challenge and undertook the work,” stated Perry Marak in his statement.
Blaming Mantri for the turn of events, the then project manager claimed that work was progressing well during Bakshi’s time until the new deputy commissioner took over.
“When the new incumbent joined he did not initiate any reviews but started blaming and defaming us that the work was not good and unsatisfactory. He even ordered to stop the existing work and started finding fault in all our works of MRDS and not just this. For the money which was transferred to us we have carried out the work diligently and satisfactorily. How can we be blamed for the work not allowed to start? The unspent balance was always there and we have never disputed that but the assessment is wrong. We promptly deposited the Rs. 40 lakh balance for which work was not started due to Mantri,” the statement from Perry Marak mentioned.
The former MRDS official has also claimed that their names were cleared during an internal inquiry by his very own organization (MRDS) and a magisterial probe.
FKJGP demands action against Bakshi and others
Meanwhile, the FKJGP has questioned the Meghalaya Government’s silence over the alleged misappropriation of Total Sanitation Campaign funds in East Garo Hills District and demanded stern action against the guilty, including then deputy commissioner Pravin Bakshi.
“We are shocked to hear the funds misappropriation by the head of the administration and former Williamnagar DC, Pravin Bakshi. If the head of the district is misusing public funds what else can the people expect from the district administration?” questioned FKJGP’s anti-corruption secretary Pingstone D Sangma in a statement.
Showering praise on deputy commissioner Vijay Kumar Mantri for unearthing the scam the FKJGP stated sarcastically that it was thanks to the personal grudge between the two deputy commissioners which resulted in the findings.
The FKJGP also cautioned that there could be more misappropriation of public funds in Garo Hills which people are unaware of and said that only stern action against the guilty would send a strong message against corruption.