SSA funds 'misappropriated' in Arunachal, alleges BJP

ITANAGAR: The BJP today alleged that huge amounts of central funds allocated for Computer Aided Learning (CAL) programme under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has been "misappropriated" by Arunachal Pradesh education department, a charge denied by the state government.

"The education department misappropriated the amount by awarding contract to a firm without floating any tender," BJP state-level monitoring and vigilance committee chairman Tapen Siga said in a press conference here.

The firm's chairman is state Congress president Padi Richo and it was registered at Shillong on January 7, 2009, three days prior to signing of the MoU with the state's SSA Mission, Siga said.

When contacted, Richo refuted the charge, saying he was being targeted as he had taken charge of the state's Congress unit.

An education department spokesperson said there was no truth in the charges.

The MoU was signed between the state's SSA Mission and the Arunachal Pradesh Manpower and Project Consultancy Ltd, on January 10, 2009 for supplying CAL materials to 256 primary schools in the state.

Demanding a CBI probe into the scam, Siga alleged that though the total contract amount was Rs 18.99 crore, the department paid 27.71 crore to the firm.

A nine-member state-level monitoring and vigilance committee was constituted a few months back under the guidance of BJP leader and Union Minister Kiren Rijiju to monitor the implementation of developmental projects in the state and to keep vigil on proper utilisation of central funds.

"The committee has identified a few departments where huge amount of central funds provided for developmental projects were reportedly mismanaged. The committee is trying to find out facts behind those reports," he added.