Guwahati, Nov 30 : RTI activist Akhil Gogoi today said he had a strong suspicion that another scam, like the LoC scam that took place during the AGP regime led by Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, had taken place during the tenure of chief minister Tarun Gogoi.
“The people of Assam are well aware that an LoC scam took place during Prafulla Mahanta’s rule but we have a strong suspicion that another LoC-like scam took place during Tarun Gogoi’s tenure. Our suspicion is based on the special CAG audit report that exposes massive corruption in the NC Hills autonomous council from 2007-08 to 2008-09,” Akhil Gogoi, the general secretary of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity, said.
The peasant leader told reporters here that the state government had informed the CAG that it had released Rs 151.40 crore to the NC Hills autonomous council. But the CAG found during its special audit conducted over 26 months that Rs 424.04 crore had been released. “The CAG clearly mentions that the state government did not provide them with sufficient information and tried to hide statistics during the special audit process,” he added.
“So we suspect that the LoC-like scam took place during Gogoi’s term and money was released with false documents,” he said.
He also alleged that the state government had concealed the original probe report of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which had the names of some cabinet ministers. “The chief minister and his cabinet colleagues are involved in the scam but the state government managed to hide the original report of NIA,” he alleged and demanded the resignation of Tarun Gogoi and his three cabinet colleagues, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Gautam Roy and Khorsingh Ingti, on moral grounds.
The Opposition AGP also demanded Tarun Gogoi’s resignation over the CAG report, which observed massive corruption in the NC Hills autonomous council.
AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary asked Tarun Gogoi to follow the example of Union telecom minister A. Raja who resigned after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report was tabled in Parliament. He produced the special audit report of the CAG before the media and said Tarun Gogoi should resign immediately on moral grounds.
“The chief minister had earlier said he would resign if someone could prove the allegations of Rs 1,000 crore scam in the NC Hills council. Now that the CAG report has proved the allegations of financial anomalies, Gogoi should resign immediately,” he said. Quoting the CAG report, he said, “Reasons for release of excess fund by the state government over the budget provisions were not available on record. Release of excess funds over the budget provision is fraught with the risk of misutilisation, misappropriation of fund.”
Patowary said the CAG audit covered financial transactions of only eight departments of the council — PHC, agriculture, forest, social welfare, PWD, education, medical and police from 2007-08 to June 12, 2009. He said during this period, the government gave Rs 272,64,23,000 as excess funds without any budget. The scam would be several times more than Rs 1,000 crore if the financial transactions of all the 30 departments under the council were audited, he added.
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