CHENNAI: After Tiruvallur police booked senior officials of Kamarajar Port on allegations of misappropriation of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds, a statement from the port on Tuesday said they are still awaiting reply from Tiruvallur district administration over the status of the CSR funds it handed over to the district administration.
The police had registered a case based on a private complaint by M R Thiyagarajan, a fishermen welfare activist, who alleged that the port in an RTI reply claimed that it had built a community hall at Kattur colony near the port with CSR funds in the financial year 2015-16. But, no such community hall exists, hence the alleged misappropriation.
The port’s press release said it was the Tiruvallur district administration that executes the infrastructure projects on the CSR funds allocated by the port. In the financial year, the port had totally given Rs 4,98,47,000 to the district administration from the port’s CSR funds, including a community hall at Kattur Colony at a cost of `30 lakh. “As per the MoU, the roles and responsibilities of District Administration, Tiruvallur are to manage the funds and to execute infrastructure development works through its authorised agencies. After the completion of the year 2015-16, KPL (Kamarajar Port Limited) had asked in August 2016 the status of the completion of the projects for which funds were released and reply from the district administration is still awaited,” the release said.
The statement did not explain the RTI reply it gave to the complainant, which allegedly claimed the community hall was built using CSR funds. But, it said the facts are being misinterpreted to malign the port’s image. “The complaint is nothing but misrepresentation of fact with ulterior motive to malign the image of Kamarajar Port Limited and harass its officers. The intention of the complainant is very clear because he has named totally unconnected officers in the FIR who have no role in the CSR implementation of KPL.”
The release said the Kamarajar port being a public sector undertaking is subjected to rigorous internal vigilance administration and multi-layered audit of expenditure.
The Kattur police had filed the FIR on October 3 based on a directive by Ponneri magistrate court.