ITANAGAR, 10 Sep: The state BJP has said that the allegations levelled against Chief Minister Pema Khandu by All Nyishi Youth Association (ANYA) president Byabang Joram on Friday “are vague and imaginary, without any basis.”
Addressing a press briefing at the party’s headquarters here on Saturday, state BJP spokesman Dominic Tadar said, “Ever since the BJP took the reins of Arunachal Pradesh with Chief Minister Pema Khandu as its head, the government has adopted a pan-Arunachal view in its developmental agenda by ensuring an inclusive and participatory approach in all decision-making. The annual budgets, which were earlier done behind closed doors, are now participatory, where all stakeholders have a say.
“A wider consultation with all strata of people is being carried out to give the formal shape to any decision or policy of the government. This government has been maintaining utmost transparency and accountability with heavy hands-on corruption, leading to arrest and suspension of many top-ranking officers,” he said.
Tadar added that the Khandu government “always stands for transparency, and therefore finds it obligatory to reveal the true and authentic facts in the public domain while repudiating the allegations levelled against the government.”
Regarding the Sampoorna Gramin Rojgar Yojana (SGRY), the spokesman said, “ANYA alleged that Pema Khandu managed to stop the hearing every time in connection with this case in the Supreme Court, whereas there is no iota of truth of the allegations. It is a serious allegation against the Supreme Court. The court may take suo moto cognisance of this kind of allegations, questioning the integrity of the highest court of the country.
“The fact of the case is that a public interest litigation, No 52/2007, was filed in the Gauhati High Court by one Borang Lama and another versus the state of Arunachal Pradesh and others. This PIL consisted of various allegations, primarily against then chief minister late Dorjee Khandu. The main contention raised in PIL 52/2007 was the alleged drawal of Rs 68.44 crore as cost of transportation of 24,800 mts of rice allocated by the GoI to the state of Arunachal Pradesh under the SGRY during 2004-05.
“After thorough hearing of arguments placed by both the parties, the Gauhati High Court exonerated late Dorjee Khandu and other respondents of all the allegations levelled against them in its judgment dated 12 May, 2010,” Tadar said.
“This judgment of the high court was challenged in the Supreme Court in the form of a special leave petition by two separate persons – Rahul Agarwal in SLP-31233/2010, and another by the so-called Voluntary Arunachal Sena in SLP-34696/2010. Since the matter is sub judice in the Supreme Court, it may not be proper to comment on the matter till the SLPs are finally settled by the Supreme Court,” he added.
On the allegation of gross misuse of Rs 142 crore from the DDUGJY fund, Tadar said that “it has been projected as if Rs 142 crore received from the government of India under the DDUGJY for the whole of Arunachal Pradesh was utilised only for the three districts of West Kameng, Tawang and Namsai, which is not correct. The actual fact is that a total amount of Rs 408.61 crore was sanctioned under the DDUGJY (original) and DDUGJY (additional) which was executed in 17 districts of the state, as per specific requirements.
“It may, however, be mentioned here that schemes under the power department are sanctioned not on district-wise but on the basis of field requirement, assessed through various criteria, such as population, number of habitation area, distance involved between places, etc.
“As per the data of the central sector schemes sanctioned for the state during the last five years, an amount of Rs 150.10 crore was sanctioned under the IPDS in nine towns of the state. Tawang and West Kameng districts were not included in this. Similarly, under the Saubhagya scheme, an amount of Rs 198.90 crore was sanctioned for 16 districts, out of which allocation for Tawang district was a mere Rs 2.50 crore, West Kameng was R s 7.66 crore and no allocation was made for Namsai district.
“Under DDUGJY (original and additional), an amount of Rs 408.61 crore was sanctioned, which was spread over 16 districts in the state. The emergent requirements of Tawang, West Kameng and Namsai, which could not be taken up in other schemes, were taken care of under DDUGJY.
“To sum up, the total cost of schemes in the state under the IPDS, DDUGJY and Saubaghya is Rs 757.62 crore, which was executed or under execution, as the case may be, in various parts of the state, of which, projects amounting to Rs 143.75 crore are in Papum Pare district alone,” Tadar said.
He added: “The tendering process of the works under DDUGJY in whole of Arunachal Pradesh was done as per guidelines of DDUGJY and CPWD manual by following all codal formalities provided therein. However, considering the administrative inconvenience arising out of paucity of time at that point, tenders of DDUGJY (additional) were conducted at Bomdila in presence executive engineer power (electrical) divisions of Bomdila, Tawang and Namsai. Nevertheless, works were awarded to successful bidders by concerned EEs through respective circle and zone of power (electrical) department, and not by EE power (electrical) division Bomdila as alleged.
“The DDUGJY work under Bomdila division of power (electrical) is awarded to M/s DM Groups, Seppa, and not to M/s Nirvana Enterprise as alleged. It is also not true that an amount of Rs 39 crore was released to M/s Nirvana Enterprises without substantial works having been completed,” he added.
Stating that presenting wrong facts and figures in the public domain is detrimental to the development of the state, the spokesman said: “ANYA, a community-based organisation, should not sound like a political organisation and target the leader of the ruling party in the state.
“This kind of vague, unwanted and uncalled for allegations, without basis, against the head of the government of the state only black points the image of the people and the state. There are many constitutional bodies, authorities and forums in the country to justify all allegations of corruption, if any, but this kind of politically motivated campaign will not gather any moss,” Tadar added.
