BJP alleges irregularities in HTS

Itanagar, Feb 15(PTI) The youth wing of the BJPin Arunachal Pradesh has alleged ''misappropriation andirregularities'' in the Hill Transport Subsidy (HTS)bills submitted by carriage contractors of the statefor payment of PDS bills from April 2007 onwards.

The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in a lettertoday requested the chief secretary to stop payment of the HTSbills and initiate inquiry to check the authenticity of thebills.

The letter, a copy of which was made availableto the press, also threatened to launch a statewideagitation if its request was not met within a week.

The Centre has released an amount of rupees 21 croreto the state government to pay the PDS contractors'' billsfrom April 2007 onwards. But the food and civil supplies (FCS)directorate detected irregularities and malpractices in theHTS bills submitted by the carriage contracors.

The BJYM alleged that carriage contractorssubmitted bills even without having continuation orders,such as extension order, rate notifications as also billswhich were apparently dispatched but never reached fair priceshop locations.

It also accused FCS directorate officials ofsuppressing facts and forwarding fraudulent bills to thegovernment for payment.

The party in the letter further demanded thatdistrict-wise details of bills submitted by contractorsto the FCS directorate should be made transparent.