RIMS employees to face trial for embezzlement on April 3

From our Special Correspondent

IMPHAL, March 29: The trial of 11 employees of Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Imphal, a Government of India (GoI) undertaking, facing charges of embezzlement of Rs 23 lakh will begin from April 3 in the court of the special judge, Manipur East court. The CBI had filed the chargesheets against them alleging that these employees had misappropriated the money for several years while the authority was in deep slumber.

The modus operandi was that they had overcharged various fees from the patients. While the actual amount collected was stated in the receipt issued to the patients, the much smaller amount which is the actual official fee is written in the copies of the receipt kept for official records.

The accused employees are Telem Rajen Roy, a retired assistant cashier, N Phajaton, clerk, N Thambalngou, clerk, L Mohonjao, retired clerk, L Shantikumar, clerk, S Kantomani, clerk, L Roshan, artist,  and a few attendents K Okendro, M Nagindro, S Chaoba and H Rajen. It is alleged that the accused persons had conspired from 2007 to 2009 to misappropriate the office money. The accused persons had volunteered to return Rs 2,322,933 they had swindled. The Director of RIMS had ordered to deposit the money in the income monitoring cell. The Director further gave the prosecution sanction on November 9,2011 against these employees.

Some sections feel that there is likely to be a travesty of justice since these 11 employees were merely made the scapegoats. It sounds very outlandish that these low rung employees had misappropriated the money for such a long time by themselves and without the connviance of some higher ups.. It is also feared that the actual amount swindled must be much higher. Privately, it is estimated that the figure runs into Rs 5 crore which should not be surprising since the daily collection of RIMS is sometimes over Rs 1,00,000. The only snag is that the RIMS authority could not establish the misappropriation in all the instances. The rule says that the money collected from the patients should be deposited on a daily basis with the United Bank of India, located on the same campus. The higher-up officials turned a blind eye when the low rung employees did not deposit the money for a long time or when just a fraction of actual collection had been deposited.

There are some unanswered questions also. The low rung employees could not have got a free hand for such a long time without the knowledge and tacit approval of some higher-ups of those days. The Director, the Chief Accounts Officer, the Accounts Officer, the Medical Superintendent of the relevant times had failed to supervise the money transfer, deposit and others. Why was no question asked or actions taken when the cashier did not deposit the money or actually deposited just a part of it with the bank for such a long period ? Why was not the cash book checked at regular periods to ensure that there was no doctoring of figures or swindling of the money ? The high officials had collectively failed to supervise the money transfer and check corruption from their levels. Is it fair that these officials should be allowed to escape scotfree while the low rung employees who had played minor and insignificant roles should be made the scapegoats?

Sources said that the incumbent Director Prof S Sekharjit has taken up fool-proof measures to ensure that all loopholes are plugged so that dishonest employees cannot swindle money in this manner.

Nagaland Parliamentary Secretary visits spot of murder

From our Correspondent

LIPHANYAN (WOKHA), March 29: Nagaland Parliamentary secretary for Border Affairs and Irrigation and Flood control, Y Patton, accompanied by officials of Wokha district administration, Border Affairs and Police, on Thursday visited the spot where three persons including two GPRN/NSCN cadres and a civilian were killed by illegal migrants working as labourers in a stone quarry under Liphanyan village jurisdiction, Wokha district.

The district administration led by DC Wokha, Rovilatuo Mor and villagers briefed the Parliamentary secretary on the incident that took place at the site, situated on the banks of the Doyang river opposite to the 142 CRPF (F Company) camp, Kherbari.

Three persons were bludgeoned to death with iron rods and stones by the migrant labourers working under one Alauddin, a contractor based on the other side of the border, when they came to collect ‘tax’ as per their reported discussion with Alauddin earlier.

Later, addressing a public meeting at the Liphanyan community hall, Patton reiterated that the incident is not a border issue but purely a law and order problem and urged the public of Ralan sub-division not to create any border problem.

Stating that all efforts would be made to apprehend the culprits behind the heinous crime, Patton at the same time asked the villagers to remain vigilant. He also questioned the neutrality of the CRPF and said that after committing the heinous crime, the illegal migrants escaped to the other side of the border under the very nose of the CRPF personnel.

The Parliamentary secretary who also represented 40 A/C Bhandari during 1998-2003 said he had come to visit and assess the situation and because of his personal concern for the people of the area, which falls under 40 A/C Bhandari.

Patton further informed that a peace committee has been formed to ensure peaceful co-existence and harmony in the border areas.

DC Wokha, Rovilatuo Mor thanked the Liphanyan villagers for arranging the coffins of the three deceased and announced that the parliamentary secretary has donated Rs 20,000 to Liphanyan village council for their trouble. Patton also gave Rs 10,000 to family of the deceased civilian.

Additional secretary, Border Affairs, L Limsong, deputy director, Border Affairs, A Robin Lotha, commandant 7 NAP, Philip Humtsoe, SP Border, ADC and SDO (C) Bhandari accompanied the parliamentary secretary.

On his way back, Patton also had a brief interaction with members of the Naga Students’ Federation and Kyong Students’ Union at Yangpha village. The two student bodies are also scheduled to have a public meeting at Governor’s Camp, Liphanyan, in the afternoon.

Miscreants plant grenade at RIMS premises

From our Special Correspondent

IMPHAL, March 29: A China-made hand grenade was left at the construction site in the Psychiatric Department of Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal reportedly by the extremists of the People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (Pro group) at 12.30 am today. Police who rushed to the site, safely removed it for carrying out a controlled explosion. Although a case has been registered, no arrests has been made so far.

Police reports said that the bomb along with the letter was sighted by the construction workers. Police were then, immediately called in. The letter said that the officials and contractors had disobeyed the instruction to suspend the construction works. The obstinate contractors and high officials should come out with statements within five days, failing which they may be abducted and forced to make public confessions.

A sum of Rs 124 crore has been sanctioned for the construction of the Out-patient Department and hostels. The ground works had been started. However, the construction works were suspended from Thursday. It is feared that the workers might have been threatened.

Four rapists sent to jail

Imphal, March 29: Four persons, including two from the Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB), who had allegedly abducted and raped a tribal woman have been sent to jail.

The four were tried and sent to judicial custody yesterday by the chief judicial magistrate of Bishenpur district.

The four, including two IRB personnel were identified as havildar Chungkham Ibomcha (37) and IRB rifleman K Keneday (38) and their two friends, S Bijen (38) and L Rohit (28).

The four are accused of abducting and raping the tribal in the hilly Tamenglong district when she was going to sell her vegetables on March 22.

Various social organizations including major social organization All Manipur United Clubs Organisation (AMUCO) have been demanding strict punishment for the accused.

Major insurgent organization United National Liberation Front has said that they would give extreme punishment to the rapists. (PTI)

Tripura tops in average employment under rural jobs scheme

Agartala, March 29: Tripura continues to be the leading state in the country in terms of average employment under the rural jobs scheme, with the state providing 72.39 person-days of work in the current fiscal, state’s Rural Development Minister Jitendra Chaudhury said Thursday.

Chaudhury told reporters that Tripura has been providing the highest average employment for the past three years under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

“Tripura retained the top position since 2009-10 fiscal in terms of person-days generation of 72.39 so far in the current fiscal (2011-2012), followed by Andhra Pradesh (48.70 person-days) and Sikkim (47.43),” Chaudhury said.

MGNREGA guarantees 100 days of employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Chaudhury said other top 10 states in terms of person-days include Himachal Pradesh (45.45), Mizoram (43.27), Tamil Nadu (41.74), Rajasthan (40.17), Maharashtra (39.32), Chhattisgarh (38.56) and Meghalaya (38.41).

Citing the performance report of the union rural development ministry, he said Kerala secured the top position in participation of women in MGNREGA with percentage of 92.94 followed by Goa (75.93 percent) and Tamil Nadu (74.83 percent).

The minister said Tripura has also seen a rise in its allocation for MGNREGA for the next fiscal.

“Tripura is the only state in India whose allocation for the 2012-13 was increased by the centre. Rs.1,146 crore has allocated for the coming fiscal and it is Rs.104 crore higher than the current fiscal,” the minister added.

Tripura government is providing wages to MGNREGA workers at their door steps through business correspondents engaged by various nationalised and regional rural banks, he said. (IANS)

RBI to open branch in Imphal

From our Special

Correspondent

IMPHAL, March 29: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to open a branch here within six months and another at Itanagar soon, according to RBI deputy governor HR Khan.

Toeing its policy of bringing unbanked areas under the banking net to support the Government of India’s (GoI) inclusive growth, the RBI had targeted to open 25 per cent branches in unbanked areas by identifying 72,800 villages with a population over 2,000 to be brought under the banking purview by March 2012.

The RBI has defined ‘unbanked’ rural centre as one that does not have “a brick and mortar structure of any scheduled commercial bank for customer-based banking transactions”.

The private sector banks will be hit harder compared to their public sector peers as these have only 6 per cent of their branches in rural India, according to an analyst.

The SBI having 35 per cent of its branches in rural areas and nationalized banks with 34 per cent of their branches in rural areas in July 2011, gives the banking or unbanked area of the nation.

While addressing villagers at a financial outreach camp of RBI here Monday last Khan said the RBI branch would be the fourth in the NE after Shillong and Agartala besides Guwahati Branch.

Underlining the importance of extending banking facilities in all parts of the country especially in NE to boost the region’s economy, he said the camp was part of the RBI’s platinum jubilee celebration to sensitize the people on banking facilities and bring them under mainstream banking.

Electricity rates hiked in Tripura

Agartala, March 29: Tripura State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) has hiked power tariff by Rs 0.69 per unit as against the demand for Rs 1.95 by the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Ltd (TSECL), official sources said today. According to an estimate, the Corporation will be able to collect an additonal Rs 40 crore per year due to the hike. Chairman of SERC, Monaranjan Karmakar, said, “The Tripura State Electricity Corporation (TSECL) sought an increase of Rs 1.95 per unit which accounts for 48.65 per cent hike, but the present hike accounts for 17.5 per cent rise in tariff per unit.” Power Minister Manik Dey, said, the TSECL had submitted tariff petition for review as per the Central Electricity Law. The corporation pointed out that the per unit cost of power had increased substantially after abrupt hike in gas price by the Central government, he said. “Besides, recurring expenditure has also gone up due to implementation of the new pay structure for the corporation’s employees,” he said. The TSECL which was once a profit making PSUs of the government is suffering a loss of Rs 40 crore each year since 2010 due to implementation of new pay structure. The Power Minister said that the government would examine the decision of the SERC in detail and take a decision on giving subsidy in tariff for domestic consumers. (PTI)

Tripura declared malaria-prone

Agartala, March 29:  Tripura has been declared malaria prone following the detection of 346 positive cases of Plasmodium Falciparum (PF) in the State in the last one month, official sources said today. Health minister Tapan Chakraborty said that medical experts have advised the State government to use second generation drugs instead of traditional medicines to prevent malaria. The State health department has sent 25 malaria surveillance teams to Dhalai, Unokoti and North Tripura, the worst affected districts since last week. Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers have been given instant PF diagnosis kits throughout the State, he said. All precautionary measures were being taken to prevent the disease, adequate drugs were available and not a single death was reported from any part of the State so far, the minister said. (PTI)

Another succumbs to injury

Agartala, March 29: With the death of another person in the March 25 clash between the CPI(M) and Congress at Chowmuhani block in West Tripura, the toll rose to three. The person Litan Debbarma who was injured in the clash succumbed to his injuries yesterday, DIG, Police Control, Nepal Das said today. Another person Rabi Kumar Debbarma earlier died of his injuries on March 26 night.The third casualty was Ramen Deb who suffered a heart attack after his house was attacked. The Leader of the Opposition Ratan Lal Nath belonging to the Congress today claimed that contrary to CPI(M)’s claim, Litan and Rabi were not their supporters and were killed by the Marxists. (PTI)