GUWAHATI: The Meghalaya government will probe the alleged misappropriation of central funds to two autonomous district councils.
The state’s District Council Affairs Minister Hamletson Dohling said the Director of Local Fund Audit (DLFA) would look into the charges of graft in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) and the Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (JHADC). Both are ruled by the National People’s Party (NPP) which heads the state’s multi-party ruling coalition.
The decision to conduct the audit was taken as Governor Satya Pal Malik sought a response from the Conrad Sangma government to the complaints of funds misappropriation.
Taking note of complaints about non-payment of salaries to employees of the two councils, Aldous Mawlong, who is the Commissioner-Secretary in-charge of the District Council Affairs department, wrote to the DLFA: “I, therefore, request you to conduct a thorough audit on the expenses made by the GHADC and the JHADC during the last five years, from 2015 till 2020, and to submit the report at the earliest”.
Earlier, state BJP chief Ernest Mawrie had demanded a CBI probe into alleged siphoning off Rs 264 crore by the two councils. He alleged that the funds, allocated under Special Assistant Grant for the development of under-developed areas, were misappropriated in the names of ghost bridges and footpaths and to carry out repair works of official buildings, guest houses, etc.
The charges of corruption raised by the BJP, which has two MLAs, had triggered a war of words during which Mawrie threatened that the BJP would pull out of the government. It made NPP state president WR Kharlukhi to dare the BJP to do so. The NPP was unhappy that the BJP chose to go to the media instead of discussing the issue within the alliance.