Northern Sumi Students’ Union (NSSU) has urged the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) to take punitive action against the “erring officers” who allegedly misused Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) funds.
In a press release, NSSU president Puloto Naga and general secretary Samuel Sumi said that a joint inspection was conducted on November 18 under Changpang circle along with superintendent engineer, Kohima circle from appellate authority (appellate court) as recorder and observer and PHED, Wokha division.
The inspection was conducted in connection to the RTI application filed by Puloto Naga and Samuel Sumi RTI applicant (now appellant) with regard to the implementation of SBM and JJM scheme from 2014 till date.
In this regard, Northern Sumi Students’ Union informed that after conducting joint verification, PHED Wokha division under Changpang circle found that the activities under SBM were “not implemented properly” as per guidelines of the project and funds involved in the scheme had been “misappropriated”.
It stated that there were five to six activities under SBM scheme and the total amount found misused had accumulated the worth of more than one crore.
Northern Sumi Students’ Union said that during the inspection, it was found that the department had withdrawn the bill on the scheme/activities “without proper implementation and some project has no sign of physical development”.
In this regard, the RTI applicant wrote a letter to the chief engineer and appellate authority, Kohima demanding action against those found guilty for allegedly misusing funds within three days from the date of receiving the letter, however, they said that even after the expiry of the deadline, the department failed to take action and did not consider the issue on priority.
The union has, therefore warned that if the department did not consider their issue on priority and failed to take punitive action against erring officers, it would “not be silent mute spectator” but fight tooth and nail till justice was delivered.