Shillong: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly has called upon the Home (Police) department to provide reports on alleged irregularities related to the construction of the police academy.
During a media briefing on May 30, Saleng Sangma, a member of the PAC and Congress MLA from Gambegre, highlighted anomalies within the Home (Police) department concerning the utilization of funds allocated by the central government for the police academy.
Despite the state losing half of the funds due to delays in land acquisition, significant progress has been made in completing the police academy.
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Meghalaya was granted Rs 50 crore for the Home (Police) department under the 13th Finance Commission.
However, due to the aforementioned land acquisition delay for the establishment of a police academy comprising approximately 35 infrastructures, the state forfeited Rs 25 crore of the allocated funds.
The new police academy is situated in Umran, Niangbyrnai, under the Ri-Bhoi district, approximately 33 km from Shillong. It was inaugurated by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma in 2020.
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According to the submitted reports, although the state could not access half of the funds, it managed to adjust the shortfall using state resources, resulting in the near completion of the academy.
Sangma further revealed that, as per the report from the Police (Home) department, the academy has already commenced training for over 3,000 cadets.