IMPHAL, October 29: Clarifying on the allegations labelled against the Assembly Secretariat as reported in several local dailies, the Manipur Legislative Assembly Dy Secy has issued a press release.
The press release has negated CPI, Manipur State Council secretary Dr Nara’s allegation that Speaker Lokeshore had withdrawn Rs 5.60 lakh for the purpose of attending the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (September 7 to 15) without actually attending.
The statement said that the Ministry of External Affairs had cleared an amount of Rs 5 lakh which was not meant only for the Colombo conference but it was sanctioned as the Advance TA for a post conference tour of USA, Japan and UK.
The statement clarified that the Speaker was however unable to make the trip due to some personal issues. The release claimed that the whole amount has already been deposited at the bank by the Assembly Secretariat.
The statement has further clarified that a briefing meeting prior to the conference was supposed to be held at New Delhi on August 3, however it was postponed to August 13.
In order to participate in the meeting, the Speaker along with the concerned officers left Imphal, however on reaching Delhi, the team was told that the meeting had been again postponed to August 27 due to which the Speaker return home.
Later three officers went on to attend the meeting, however the Speaker could not make it due to certain issues. The officers who had attended the meeting are yet to be reimbursed as they had paid their expenses from their own pockets during the trip, the release said.
In such a scenario, it would be wrong to level a charge that the Speaker has withdrawn Rs 60 thousand for the said trip.
Meanwhile, the Assembly Secretariat, Secretary had disbursed a sum of Rs 2.80 lakh for attending the 58th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference and a Post Conference tour of USA, Singapore and UK. The Secretary went to attend the Colombo conference but had to return home without making the post conference tour due to a late clearance for his VISA.
The release said that Assembly Secretaries get chances to attend such CPA conference once in every four or five years. The amount of Rs 2.80 lakh was cleared as Advance TA and is adjustable after the trip, the statement said. Any left-over amount is to be returned to the treasury after getting a receipt, it added.
The release further continued that the Election Commission called two officers to attend a workshop ahead of the Presidential election. Two officers paid from their own pockets to attend the said workshop.
Later two more officers were called to procure the ballot boxes for which Advance TA was provided. During the return journey, the officers had to get tickets for the ballot boxes also.
Further clarifying on the charges regarding spending of Rs 2.60 lakhs by two representatives during the procurement of ballot boxes, the statement said there were six trips during the procurement of the ballot boxes and returning the same and that there were special order from the Election Commission that the ballot boxes were travelling in the executive class during the return journey. All adjustment regarding the trips has been completed, it added.
It continued that the contingency budget, 2011-12 for the Assembly stands at Rs 7.58 crores, however since it was not enough another Rs 331.66 lakh was sanctioned.
It has elaborated on that the contingency budget is used for MLA fuel expenditure (700 ltr of petrol per MLA/month) including fuel utilised by Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Chairman (HAC), Vice Chairman (HAC), Committee tours and visiting committees for other states, refreshment of committees meetings and Session of the House, stationary items, day to day maintenance repairing/maintenance of office vehicles, office buildings, guest house, Speaker’s Bungalow, purchase of furniture and all electrical and electronics items (computers, TV, etc) and expenditure on conference and seminars and purchase o water etc.
It has also said that all civil works inside the Assembly Secretariat are supervised by the Engineering Cell attached with the Assembly. As such it would be wrong to charge that Rs 16 Crore has been sanctioned when the overall budget stands at just Rs 10.89 crores.
The statement has also denied the charges levelled regarding the Assembly Secretariat Diary.
It said the first Assembly Diary was taken out in the year 2011 when Thokchom Lokeshore was the Speaker in charge.
2500 diaries with colour photos of all MLAs were printed totalling to Rs 8.75 lakh. The next year, in 2012, when I Hemochandra was the Speaker 3000 diaries with colour photos of MLAs and Ministers at a cost of Rs 12 lakh were printed.
The copies were distributed t all Ministers, MLAs, Assembly staffs, MPs, Governor’s Secretariat, CM’s Secretariat, Chief Secretary’s Office, Principal Secretaries/SPs, ex MLAs, ex MPs, all other state Assemblies, Manipur Bhawans, local dailies, certain VIPs.
The diaries were printed at the BCPW 85 PDA Complex, Lamphel. A tender was announced before the printing of the diaries. As for 2013 nothing regarding the diaries had been finalised.
It has also clarified that vehicles of the secretariat were auctioned, and disposed after the Assembly Mechanical Supervisor’s report which was checked by an Inspector of the Transport department. The Motor Vehicle Authority had fixed the MRP of the vehicles after which the Board of Condemnation of Vehicle recommended the auction of the vehicles.
It has also said that since the appointment cases are still in court it would be sub-judice to make statements on the issues.