HC notices to IGNCA, Centre over Rs 100-cr fraud charge
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, a trust closely associated with the Gandhi family.
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, a trust closely associated with the Gandhi family, and the central government over a petition alleging that over Rs 100 crore of trust money were embezzled.
A division bench of Justices T S Thakur and Aruna Suresh asked the Centre, the IGNCA and one of its officials, Kapila Vatsayan, to respond by April 29. The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by DP Sinha alleging that according to the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report the trust and its members siphoned over Rs 100 crore of its fund, meant for constructing IGNCA’s office in the capital. The IGNCA occupies prime real estate in the heart of the Capital.
The adverse CAG report dates back to Ms Vatsayan’s tenure as academic director of the trust during 1995-1999. Ms Vatsayan, who is a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, is known to be close to the Gandhi family.
The IGNCA was established in 1987 as an autonomous institution under the ministry of culture, as a centre for research, academic pursuit and dissemination in the field of the arts. IGNCA’s workings have come under the scanner of not only the CAG, but also the parliamentary standing committee. In its report of April 2007, the parliamentary panel had questioned the reason why the Centre’s budgetary allocation kept increasing despite the fact that the IGNCA was unable to utilise funds.
Allocation for the Centre in 2006-07 was raised from Rs 50 lakh in the budget estimate stage to Rs 3 crore in the revised estimate stage, though only Rs 30 lakh was spent. The panel noted that it “does not find any satisfactory explanation for non-utilisation of the allocated funds and the reasons for the vast increase at the RE stage during the year 2006-07. It also notes that there is a major increase in the allocation for the IGNCA again in the BE 2007-08.”
A division bench of Justices T S Thakur and Aruna Suresh asked the Centre, the IGNCA and one of its officials, Kapila Vatsayan, to respond by April 29. The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by DP Sinha alleging that according to the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report the trust and its members siphoned over Rs 100 crore of its fund, meant for constructing IGNCA’s office in the capital. The IGNCA occupies prime real estate in the heart of the Capital.
The adverse CAG report dates back to Ms Vatsayan’s tenure as academic director of the trust during 1995-1999. Ms Vatsayan, who is a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, is known to be close to the Gandhi family.
The IGNCA was established in 1987 as an autonomous institution under the ministry of culture, as a centre for research, academic pursuit and dissemination in the field of the arts. IGNCA’s workings have come under the scanner of not only the CAG, but also the parliamentary standing committee. In its report of April 2007, the parliamentary panel had questioned the reason why the Centre’s budgetary allocation kept increasing despite the fact that the IGNCA was unable to utilise funds.
Allocation for the Centre in 2006-07 was raised from Rs 50 lakh in the budget estimate stage to Rs 3 crore in the revised estimate stage, though only Rs 30 lakh was spent. The panel noted that it “does not find any satisfactory explanation for non-utilisation of the allocated funds and the reasons for the vast increase at the RE stage during the year 2006-07. It also notes that there is a major increase in the allocation for the IGNCA again in the BE 2007-08.”
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