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Journalism of Courage
PATNA, Nov 20: The Bihar Government today asked two senior State Finance Department officials to explain alleged anomalies in regularising expenses incurred by Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav on his 1995 trip to Singapore and the United States to woo non-resident Indians to invest in the State.
State Finance Minister S P Tekriwal told reporters he had sought an explanation from his department’s joint secretary Akhileshwar Giri and under secretary Stefen Lucas, for forwarding Yadav’s claims, “directly to the Treasury.”
Tekriwal said the Finance secretary, in his note on the RJD chief’s claim for “regularisation and clearance” of unsettled bills worth Rs 2,000 against a Rs 3.82 lakh advance for his foreign trip when he was chief minister, had ordered “preauditing” of the bills.
“But the two officials seem to have gone a step forward by forwarding Yadav’s claims to the State Treasury here and subsequently seeking the accountant-general’s permission to declare Yadav as drawing anddisbursing officer to enable him to draw the outstanding amount of Rs 2,000,” he said.
Tekriwal said Yadav’s claims for regularisation of the outstanding amount towards his foreign trip when he was chief minister was “well within the norms and legally tenable.”
He termed as “scurrilous and unseemly”, reports suspecting “foul play” in the regularisation of Yadav’s expenses.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya janata Party has demanded a probe by the Enforcement Directorate into the expenses incurred by Yadav and other team members during their visit to Singapore and the US.
The party’s State general secretary Saryu Rai and spokesman Kiran Ghai said in a joint press statement that senior State BJP leaders would meet the Union Finance Minister in this regard during his visit here tomorrow.
They charged the RJD president with having submitted “forged and fake” bills.
