The alleged scam in the spending of funds for Covid management in the State has become an election issue in North Shillong constituency.
BJP candidate from the constituency Mariahom Kharkrang has accused the NPP-led government of corruption in the spending of Covid management funds and an investigation into the “exorbitant expenditure”.
“An investigation into the exorbitant expenditure of Rs 800 crore for Covid management must be launched,” Kharkrang said.
Stating that Meghalaya has a much smaller population compared to neighbouring states like Assam and Manipur “could not have such high expenditures”, Kharkrang said, “Assam and Manipur which had more cases than Meghalaya incurred a total expenditure of only Rs 200-250 crore for Covid management.”
The former IPS officer said that a thorough enquiry was needed to find out the actual expenditures and if there was any misuse of the funds.
Kharkrang’s demand for enquiry into the alleged scam followed the recent FIR lodged by former North Shillong MLA Adelbert Nongrum demanding police investigation into the spending for Covid management in the State.
Nongrum had stated that Health Minister James Sangma during the Assembly’s autumn session on September 12, 2022 told the House that the amount spent on Covid-19 till date from the Centre was Rs 76.56 crore.
“However, the information received through RTI by one Disparsing Rani from CPO, NHM Finance Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare revealed that Central release of grants-in-aid through NHM under India Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Package for Meghalaya was Rs 15.61 crore under phase I and Rs 104.12 crore under the phase II,” Nongrum said.
“I gravely fear that the aforesaid differences in amount declared on spending from central government funds on Covid-19 activities in Meghalaya may be a case of theft or misappropriation of public money, which are offences under the IPC,” he added.
UDP candidate from North Shillong constituency, Dr. Aman War who was the Director of Health Services during the period of Covid pandemic however said that he had no knowledge as to how the expenditure shot up to Rs 800 crore.
“I cannot comment on the more than Rs 800 crore spent for Covid management in the State because all I know is that Rs 248 crore was spent by my directorate,” Dr. War told media persons after filing his nomination on February 8.
“Our expenditure at that point of time was around Rs 248 crore. Now that the expenditure is more than Rs 800 crore, you have to ask the people involved in this,” he said.
When asked about the RTI findings received by activist Disparsing Rani, who alleged that more than Rs 40 crore was misappropriated, Dr. War said that central funds do not come to the Directorate of Health Services but to the State government.
