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KOKRAJHAR: Bodo National Students’ Union (BONSU) submitted a memorandum to the Assam Governor through Kokrajhar DC demanding inquiry in to the alleged corruption, misgovernance and misappropriation of funds by council leaders and bureaucrats in BTC especially from 2020 to 2025. The memorandum was also sent to Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Vice-president of BONSU Hem Chandra Basumatary said that there had been deep-rooted corruption, scams, and misgovernance prevailing in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) over the years, particularly since 2020 and there was a growing outcry among the public over the large-scale misappropriation of public funds, lack of transparency, irregularities in developmental schemes, and abuse of administrative powers in the BTC area. He said that these corrupt practices were undermining the development of the region, depriving rightful beneficiaries of government welfare schemes, and breeding resentment and injustice. He also said that in a recent news published in a news channel on May 16, regarding the sending of a legal notice dated May 8 issued by Laland Associates on behalf of Vijay Kumar Gaur, has raised a serious concern about Bodoland Territorial Council’s first biggest organized scam of Rs 4 crore where the BTC administrations, books publishers, government officials, and politicians were directly or indirectly involved.
Basumatary said that the government funds meant for education, healthcare, rural development, and infrastructure were allegedly being siphoned off without proper implementation on the ground, large-scale irregularities reported in awarding of government book purchase contracts and tender processes, piracy of books and unreasonable hiking of book prices, for example a book costing Rs 500 would be overestimated to Rs 15,000, violating established norms and encouraging corruption of Rs 4 crore in BTC. In the recent legal notice, it was mentioned that various publishers like Prashant Jain of Indica Publishers and Distributors Pvt Ltd, Rishab Books, Aadi Books, Metro Books Pvt Ltd, and Shree Publishers, along with his associates Rahul Jain, Gaurav Jain, and Mohit Jain were involved in large scale books piracy and corruption activities. It is also to be noted that during 2017-2018, a similar scam had been reported as then senior librarian of Central Institute of Technology (CIT) Dr Sangrang Brahma allegedly had overestimated the book purchase prices from Rs 80 to USD 800 (Rs 64,000 approx).
An RTI was filed during 2021 to which the CIT Administration failed to reply or failed to provide valid reason, he said, adding that presently Sangrang Brahma is one of the OSDs to BTC CEM Pramod Boro. He also alleged that there was lack of transparency and accountability in the council and most financial and administrative decisions were taken behind closed doors without public consultation or disclosure, violating the norms of democratic governance. He further said that legal notice was served to Bodoland University Librarian Khagen Kalita along with Secretary of BTC Amarjyoti Barman on behalf of Principal Secretary Akashdeep for bribery of about Rs 5,50,000 for such illegal activities.
The BONSU demanded a high-level judicial or independent inquiry into the financial and administrative activities of BTC pertaining to corruption over the last five years, special audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India into all BTC departments and their fund utilization, immediate suspension and legal action against any official or public representative found involved in book scams or corruption, constitution of a Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Cell specifically for BTC with public grievance access and reforms to ensure transparency, including online publication of budgets, tenders, and project progress.
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