Congress renews OP Singh's case

Aizawl, June 16(UNI) The Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee has taken a renewed effort to book former Agriculture Director Dr O P Singh in a corruption case, in which he had been acquitted.

Apart from the O P Singh case, which involved over Rs 70 lakhs, the MPCC had also submitted an FIR to the Anti-Corruption Branch seeking an investigation into the alleged misuse of funds, amounting to Rs 12 lakhs, by the Tuipang BDO.

The MPCC's action committee chairman Wing Cdr Lalzawma charged the state government with letting O P Singh off the hook by refusing to comply with the recommendation of the first inquiry officer Remmawi Vanchhawng, who had recommended that the matter be taken up by the ACB for thorough and systemic investigation, which was submitted to the government on March 23, 2005.

Dr Singh had been suspended following corruption charges being levelled against him by the then Congress legislator Liansuama, who said Singh had misappropriated Rs 73.66 lakhs from the Accelerated Irrigation Beneficiary Programme.

Lalzawma further said that the state government, instead of referring Singh's case to the ACB, had constituted a departmental inquiry commission under L R Laskar, a retired IAS officer and that the officer had absolved all blame from Singh because the charges could not be proved.

He said the documents provided by Singh to defend himself was full of contradictions and that the authenticity and veracity of the documents had not been probed by the second inquiry commission.

''From the records available, it can be strongly suspected that the whole episode was cleverly designed and pre-planned. The whole facts behind are kept concealed and covered under a cloak of documentary and oral evidence cleverly designed and hatched out,'' Lalzawma alleged.

As for the second case, where Rs 12,77,500 had been improperly utilised by the Block Development Officer of Tuipang Block, Lalzawma said that an incumbent cabinet minister, a sitting MLA, a former MLA, a village council president and his members, workers of a political party and a commissioner of the state government had taken part in misusing the funds.

When the Tuipang BDO was transferred earlier this year, transfer of charges to the new BDO could not be effected because of discrepancy - in the cash register, which showed that nearly Rs 13 lakhs was missing.

However, the BDO had kept an unofficial record, where he had noted down the amount of money - taken by anyone from his office and this became public knowledge, when the BDO could not but produce his unofficial record to clear himself.

Not less than fifty people, among them a sitting Cabinet minister, an MLA and a Commissioner, had grabbed money from the BDO on one pretext or another to the amount of Rs 12,77,600.

Lalzawmliana said an FIR had been submitted to the ACB on May 22 this year on this matter and that his party had faith in the government to take necessary action.

When asked about reporting the matters to the ACB, Lalzawmliana repeated that he had faith in the state government.

UNI