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| Govt to hold probe in fund utilisation under SRE in JK | | |
Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Feb 8: Jammu and Kashmir administration is likely to initiate a probe for allegedly misusing of funds under Security Related Expenditure in the new Union Territory.
This follows after Ministry of Home Affairs raised serious questions over expenditure of funds under SRE scheme in the new Union Territory.
An official said government is mulling to hold a probe to know whether there has been any misuse of funds.
"If there is any wrong doings then action will be taken against officials from Police and Home Department in JK," the official said.
The SRE is to support the logistical requirements of the J&K police to combat militancy in the new Union Territory.
It provides 100% reimbursement of expenditure by the J&K police for carriage of constabulary, honorarium of SPOs, logistical support to security forces (SFs), construction of alternate accommodation for SFs etc.
However, MHA has raised serious questions over the expenditure of allotted funds in J&K over the years.
According to an order of J&K's Finance Department, the MHA has found a violation of basic codal formalities and guidelines framed for the SRE in J&K.
"During the course of internal audit by MHA with regard to reimbursement under SRE, certain observations with respect to non-observance of basic codal formalities and guidelines set up by SRE standing committee were found. In some cases it was found that no codal formalities have been followed while procuring materials under SRE scheme," Financial Commissioner Finance Arun Kumar Mehta said in the order.
The MHA audit has found that most of the DDOs have not brought copies of main abstract of treasury vouchers for verification by the audit team. Instead they have brought only sub-vouchers of firms and abstract registers, it says.
"The advance payment made by police headquarters to CRPF was claimed for reimbursement without ascertaining the actual expenditure incurred by the user entity. None of the DDO maintains a separate cash book for SRE thereby causing difficulty to ascertain the expenditure booked under SRE," it reads.
As per the order, most of the DDOs have submitted statements of their claims under SRE scheme without mentioning the amount of VAT/SGST etc.
The Financial Commissioner has directed drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs), to comply with the directives and follow coda formalities and guidelines in letter and spirit while making payments.
"Any deviation from the above instruction in future shall attract severe consequences," he has said.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a budget presented earlier this week allotted Rs 513 crore as SRE for Jammu and Kashmir for 2020-21.
The allocation in budget is less when comparing it with previous years. Since 1989, when the scheme was introduced, Centre has spent around Rs 8000 crore for reimbursement of J&K SRE. |
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