Assam Govt diverted funds meant for fighting insurgency: CAG

GUWAHATI, MAY 7: The continuation of insurgency in Assam should not come as a surprise, with the Government's commitment to eradicating i...

GUWAHATI, MAY 7: The continuation of insurgency in Assam should not come as a surprise, with the Government’s commitment to eradicating it only too obvious: The funds released by the Centre for the purchase of equipment and ammunition towards fighting extremism have been used, instead, to meet hire charges and petrol expenses of Army vehicles.

In a recent report on the Assam Government, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) says nearly 50 per cent of the amount released by the Centre has been diverted.

According to the report, of the Rs 14.70 crore released by the Centre in 1993-94 (when the Congress was in power in Assam), as a special financial assistance for the purchase of vehicles, equipment and ammunition to meet insurgency and extremist problems, Rs 7.10 crore was diverted towards the payment of hire charges and expenses of vehicles requisitioned for the Army.

The State Government asked the director-general of police to send a proposal for “regularisation” of the diverted sum, and while the Government of India asked for item-wise utilisation of the amount, neither was the amount regularised nor was a reply sent to the Centre.

That spending money in excess of funds available had become a regular feature with the Assam police has also been pointed out by the CAG, alongwith the fact that this habit had resulted in accumulation of liabilities totalling Rs 20.55 crore, payable to private parties whose vehicles were requisitioned, till March 31,1998.

Such is the state of affairs that vehicles purchased out of the budgeted amount and meant for districts, battalions and some specific schemes were mostly retained by the DGP’s office, the CAG report has said. The number of vehicles meant for the districts and battalions and were utilised elsewhere in the DGP’s car pool stood at 78, it further said.

The Assam police has also crossed the limit in regard to expenditure on maintenance of vehicles, with the audit finding saying that Rs 551.14 lakh was spent between 1992-93 and 1997-98 on 105 vehicles, when the permissible limit was only Rs 44.10 lakh.

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Repair expenditure of one Ambassador car under the disposal of the commandant of the fourth Assam police battalion between 1992 and ’98 stood at Rs 14.17 lakh, and that of one Maruti Gypsy under the superintendent of police, Guwahati City, stood at Rs 10.26 lakh.

The CAG report has noted that the amount spent on repair of these two vehicles was equal to the cost of four new vehicles in each category.

Meanwhile, the police department has not furnished a reply to queries regarding why such a huge expenditure was incurred.