An all-party public accounts committee (PAC) of the Assam Assembly has “detected serious anomalies” in utilization of public money in a number of government departments in Darrang district.
This was informed to Northeast Now by senior Congress legislator Wazid Ali Choudhury, the chairman of the committee, after a closed-door review meeting.
“We made field visits to take stock of implementation of 20-25 government schemes and reviewed the progress made. We could detect serious anomalies in functions of a number of government departments particularly in the multi-crore Nonoi flow irrigation project where 46 percent fund has been released against the physical progress of only 40 percent,” Choudhury told this correspondent.
He added: “Similarly Darrang Zila Parishad while allotting hat-bazaars etc have violated government guidelines by selecting the bidders with lower rates while rejected the highest bidders without justified reasons.”
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Meanwhile, the Assembly committee has directed the Darrang deputy commissioner to conduct an inqury into the alleged anomalies.
“The Darrang deputy commissioner would conduct an inquiry into the anomalies and submit a report within a month,” informed Wazid Ali Choudhury.
“After that we will again review the progress and if necessary, FIRs would be lodged against the erring officials, contractors, lessees etc,” Choudhury added.
Responding to alleged damage to the historic site of the mass grave yard (locally known as jhaoni) of the martyrs for the ongoing mega project of the historic Patharughat Krishak Swahid memorial park, Choudhury said, “There should have been proper planning to protect the site and also respect the public sentiment.”
The other members of the all-party public accounts committee (PAC) of the Assam Assembly are: Basanta Das (Congress), Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha (Congress), Chakradhar Gogoi (BJP), Utpal Borah (BJP), Ramendra Narayan Kalita (AGP), Bhabendra Narayan Bharali (AGP), Karimuddin Borbhuyan (AIUDF), Hafiz Bashir Ahmed (AIUDF) and Gobinda Chandra Basumatary (UPPL).