It’s official: flood funds siphoned, may be elsewhere too

The Bihar administration suspects that funds meant for flood relief may have been embezzled in other districts as well. Officials in New Delhi said that the Centre had allocated nearly Rs 400 crore for flood relief operations in the state.

According to Home Ministry sources, the report of the Bihar administration points out that funds should not have been released to a private supplier even if the Bihar State Small Industries Corporation (BSSIC), the nodal agency for flood relief operations, had issued such directions.

The report, it’s learnt, states that such a direction is bad in law and should not have been followed by officials in charge of relief operations.

After The Indian Express expose, Goswami has been taking the plea that funds were released on the directions of the BSSIC. Though the state report does not name any official, Ministry sources said that the report does point a finger at Goswami and others involved in relief operations.

The report has raised objections on the manner in which cheques were made out for relief material payment.

The report states that the manner in which cheques were written suggests that officials may have tried to facilitate siphoning of funds.

Details of some such cheques are there in the report.

But officials hinted that New Delhi may not be too keen to get directly involved in the investigations into the scam.

They said the reluctance stemmed from the Centre’s fear of sending out a wrong political message: the funds were siphoned off when the RJD, a UPA member, was in power in Bihar.

Officials said that Central involvement in the probe would give the Opposition another issue to take on the Government.