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| Tourism Deptt disburses Rs 1.47 crore into wrong bank accounts | | GOI seeks recovery, Govt in a fix, pubic purse dented | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 20: A startling revelation about the violation of GOI grants by Jammu and Kashmir’s Tourism Department has come to the fore with documents unraveling that Rs 1.47 crores were disbursed in violation of the financial norms.
Documents in possession of Early Times reveal that the Finance Department released Rs 1.47 crore to the Tourism Department for waiver of loans in respect of 19 houseboat owners who had turned defaulters with Banks for loans taken earlier as one-time settlement of these cases.
The Director Tourism, Kashmir, as per the documents in March 2018 disbursed Rs 1.47 crore to nine banks for settlement of these loans, which were not eligible to be covered under the scheme.
The loan of Rs 55 lakh sanctioned by the banks in their favour between February 2004 and February 2005 had accumulated to Rs 1.47 crore including interest thereon. These houseboat owners were not affected during September 2014 floods and the waiver of these loans was a violation of the scheme guidelines.
The Joint Director (Resources), Finance Department, has stated that that the then Finance Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Government had proposed one-time waiver of all such loan cases on the pattern of previous budget announcements in his budget speech 2018 and accordingly the assistance was released in favour of these 19 houseboat owners who had turned defaulters with Banks as a one-time settlement of these cases. Documents reveal that the Government of India has sought action against such a violation and has demanded recovery of the amounts from the accounts in which the money has been erroneously transferred. But the process seems cumbersome, said an insider.
According to him to recover the disbursed money from the private accounts of the beneficiaries is a Herculean task. The story goes back to the year 2018 when the popular government was in place in Jammu and Kashmir. The money mysteriously was disbursed in favour of the house boat owners..
The insider said that the foregone conclusion drawn from the entire process is that the money is gone and cannot be recovered in any manner possible. What remains to be seen is will the government initiate action against those involved in the mess. |
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