'Congress is suffering from selective amnesia'

From our correspondent

Itagar, Sept 16: Days after the Aruchal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) alleged fincial embezzlement by the Pema Khandu government to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore, the State government rejecting the charges termed it as a delusiol figment of imagition of the Congress.

"It is beyond comprehension from where an absurd figure has been conjured. It clearly shows that the opposition is oblivious of the scale of finces available within the State," Government Spokesman Passang Dorjee So told in a Press conference here.

Presenting a broad figures of Revised Estimates of 2016-17 fincial year, So informed that during the year Aruchal Pradesh received an amount of Rs 8388.30 crore under Fourteenth Fince Commission along with Rs 200 crore against centrally sponsored schemes besides Rs 1157 crore against State's own resources and Rs 713.91 from borrowings.

"Out of the total receipt, an amount of Rs 4453.91 crore was spent of salaries, wages and pension, while Rs 391.14 crore was spent on repayment of debts, Rs 2026.67 crore spent against central schemes including state share, Rs 2117.40 crore against normal departmental activities and Rs 716.92 against Special Infrastructure Development Fund (SIDF)," So informed.

On the letter of the Chief Secretary Shakuntala Doley Gamlin written to the Fince Commissioner, the spokesman informed that an explation has been sought from her to substantiate the basis of unfounded issues raised in her note.

"Being the Chief Advisor to the government, the Chief Secretary has never mentioned any such apprehensions to the Chief Minister, Fince Minister or the Council of Ministers on any occasion even after lapse of several months of implementation of the ratiolized system," he wondered.

Clearing air on another allegation made by the Congress that most of the fund under SIDF was spent in Tawang and msai districts represented by Chief Minister Pema Khandu and Deputy Chief Minister Chow Mein, So disclosed that out of the total 716.92 crore SIDF amount, Rs 35.35 crore and 36.15 crore were allocated to Tawang and msai, which is barely 5 per cent each of the total allocation.

"Congress is running out of issues and so they are trying to make issues out of no issues. If the party cannot substantiate the figure, the government might go for filing defamation case against the APCC president," the spokesman said.

"The Congress is suffering from selective amnesia and need introspection on the days of utter mismagement of fincial resources when they were at the helm of affairs. We will not allow the State to sink into the same state of mismagement," he added.

On the composite sanction as alleged by the Congress, the spokesman informed that with the objective to streamline and ratiolize the concurrence mechanism, composite sanction of schemes was adopted by the Fince Department for speedy concurrence, timely implementation of schemes and to root out corruption.

"The present government is known for unprecedented reforms at all levels of administration to bring about a transparent, accountable and corruption free governce, which no government has done in the past," he said.