GUWAHATI
Funds released for a road improvement project have been misappropriated in Assam’s Karbi Anlong, a Congress leader said on Saturday.
Debabrata Saikia, the Congress Legislature Party leader alleged that public funds have been siphoned off through nepotism in the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) headed by Tuliram Ronghang, a close aide of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Citing publicly available official records, he told journalists that projects under various grants have been awarded only to the members of the family and close relatives of Mr. Ronghang, the Chief Executive Member of the KAAC.
“A special grant of ₹100 crore under the CM’s Road Improvement Package was sanctioned to the Hill Area Development Department on March 28, 2019. Due diligence was not exercised while splitting the work between two firms — one owned by Mr. Ronghang’s wife and the other by his brother,” Mr. Saikia said.
The two firms were awarded work worth ₹60 crore and ₹40 crore, respectively, he added.
Mr. Sarma was the Finance Minister when the project was sanctioned, Mr. Saikia pointed out.
“The mediocre execution of the allocated work shows that the intention was to embezzle with complete disregard for public convenience. There was overlapping of work as most of these projects had already been funded under some grant or the other,” he said.
He cited the example of the 17 km stretch of the Diphu-Dillai-Sarihajan Road, which was completed in seven days.
“If a firm is able to construct a 17 km road in a week’s time, the engineering technology it employed should be implemented across all road construction projects of the subcontinent,” Mr. Saikia said.
