GUWAHATI, June 22? Yet another scam of misappropriation of public funds surfaces in a Government department of this fund-starved State. The department is the Social Welfare Department and the amount involved is around Rs 2.10 crore. The modus operandi of the scamsters in this case was that they used to make ?payments against fictitious bills for ?supply? of nutritious items in Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) areas between 1999 and 2001. The scheme was drawn under the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) for the benefit of the children. Though there was a strict direction to transfer the amounts to the tribal autonomous councils like the Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC), the scamsters did not abide by the stipulation and did the ?purchase? allegedly themselves at the Social Welfare Department headquarters here instead. Moreover, they also tampered with some bills to facilitate release of some additional amounts.
The sanctions made under the scheme were subject to the observance of the guidelines issued by the Union Government and also to the full satisfaction of the authorities about the supply of ?nutritious food?. But all such provisions were thrown into the wind by the scamsters. A letter written by the CDPO of Boko to the Commissioner and Secretary, Social Welfare Department on June 12, 2001 stated that though he had sent bill for payment of Rs 5,02,552 only, an amount of Rs 5,12,115 was paid on record, by the Department. On further enquiry, he also came to know that two amounts of Rs 39,462 and Rs 56,151 were paid to a contractor P K Goyal in a doubtful manner. Significantly, two more bills for Rs 55,590 and Rs 30,460 sent by the CDPO were also not passed by the Social Welfare Directorate despite the fund asked for, being available with the Directorate, the CDPO alleged.
On enquiry, the Department found that some challans passed by the Directorate had no mention of the quantity of the materials supplied. Moreover, though there was no supply order issued to the Assam State Cooperative Marketing and Consumer Federation Limited (Statfed) for the year 2000-2001, some bills were passed in favour of the Statfed. And on top of all these, there was no signature of the Branch Manager concerned of the Statfed on some of the bills. All the bills were certified by Sri G Bhuyan, the then Special Officer (Nutrition) of the Social Welfare Directorate, said Sri A Pegu, Under Secretary, Social Welfare Department in his June 25,2001 official letter to the Commissioner and Secretary, Political (Vigilance) Department, Dispur (Letter number SWD 119/2001). The Political (Vigilance Cell) Department earlier initiated an inquiry into the allegations of misappropriation of Social Welfare funds. On April 12, 2001 it directed Sri Girin Bhuyan to furnish his assets and liabilities statements within 30 days.
But on scrutiny of the assets and liabilities statements submitted by Sri Bhuyan, the Chief Minister?s Vigilance Cell later found that Sri Bhuyan?s wife Smt Puspa Gogoi had accumulated ?huge properties like land, buildings and other household properties?, bank balance and other cash credited etc. The Superintendent of the Vigilance Cell requested the Social Welfare Department?s Commissioner and Secretary to direct Sri Girin Bhuyan to furnish the statement showing the source of income along with the balance sheets of income tax in respect of his wife to his office. That was on June 19, 2001. When contacted to know about the progress of the investigation, sources in the Vigilance Cell told The Assam Tribune yesterday, that it would take some time to arrive at a conclusion in connection with the case. It is worthmentioning here that the former Chief Vigilance Commissioner of the State T K Kamilla also initiated an inquiry into the scam.