Govt officials deny GNLA’s money disappearance charge
TURA: No breakthrough has so far been made into the abduction of Chokpot Block Development Officer (BDO) Jude Rangku T Sangma who was taken away by GNLA militants from Deku Deganggre village on Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, senior government officials from the Garo Hills region have dismissed reports that Rs 40 crore had disappeared from Chokpot block as alleged by GNLA.
The Shillong Times has come to know from officials that the black topping of village roads called the BTRRS project used to be sanctioned for around fifty lakhs for two projects, Rs 25 lakh each for a kilometer of village road, and seldom crossed the one crore mark. Chokpot block is said to have received the least funding for road projects.
The highest amount of money sanctioned for Chokpot block was only Rs 3 crore which was through the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) in 2013-2014. But that amount was to be released on installments based on the performance of the work in progress and even that funding has since dried up following the scrapping of the BRGF by the new central government in New Delhi.
“Whatever amount is trickling ) in is solely for completion of the BRGF projects which were taken up before the announcement of closure of the scheme,” informed a senior officer who did not wish to be quoted.
Chokpot block is also learnt to have the dubious distinction of being the worst performing block so far as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) project is concerned.
“It is one of the least non-performing blocks in South Garo Hills for various factors including militancy so question of large sums of money to the tune of 20 crores being released for MGNREGS work is highly exaggerated,” informed a C&RD official privy to the funding in the blocks.
MGNREGS is a demand driven scheme in which villagers have to come up with work proposals and implement the same through manual labour and without use of machines.
Two other projects in all blocks, including Chokpot, are the Old Age Pension Scheme and the Indira Awas Yojna (IAY) house construction for widows and the needy. But money for these projects is deposited directly into the individual accounts of the beneficiaries.
“Sometime back a sum of One Crore 18 lakh rupees was released for Chokpot block for the IAY project but that money cannot be withdrawn by any BDO or official. It goes into the beneficiaries account,” said the government official.
Another central project is the MPLAD scheme that is rooted through the blocks but is dependent on the project approval by the member of parliament who decides on the kind of work required for each area under his parliamentary constituency.
Selsella block is known to receive the largest share of funding since it has to implement central and state schemes in one of the the most densely populated regions of Garo Hills- Rajabala, Phulbari and Garobadha-Selsella. Despite receiving the highest share of government money, funds are still a constraint many a time.