Fiasco proves slow of movement of files

Bora asks officers to ascertain when CID sent the file seeking prosecution sanction against five arrested Agriculture officers and where the file had been gathering dust

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 2: The government at Dispur has been changed, but not the pace of file movement that has all along been as slow as molasses in January.

This has come to the fore right from State Agriculture Minister Atul Bora when he told the media yesterday that he had not received any file from the CID seeking prosecution sanction against five Agriculture officers who had been arrested in connection with the Rs 700-crore scam in the department. Bora told the media that if the CID had sought prosecution sanction against the arrested officer his department should not have any objection to that. “Earlier the CID sought prosecution sanction against 31 officials and we gave that,” the minister told the media yesterday.

The delay in movement of files in the department led to the release of the five officers on bail on May 24. The minister’s statement before the media created a great deal of sensation in the department that let the minister know that they had sent the file, which the CID had sent to them seeking prosecution sanction against the officers, to his table on the night of May 31, 2017 for views from the Judicial Department. The moot point here is that the officials of the department sent the file to the minister’s table only after the arrested officers getting bail for the CID not getting prosecution sanction against them from the department. What is even more surprising is that the officials of the department sent the file to the minister after the bail of the arrested officers to seek views of the Judicial Department on prosecution sanction, not for prosecution sanction.

The minister has now ordered an inquiry to ascertain as to when the CID sent the file seeking prosecution sanction against the five officers and the number of days the file had been kept in various tables before reaching his table on May 31. The minister asked the higher officials of the department that now on in the event of receiving any important files they themselves should bring the files to him physically and draw his attention to that.