AIZAWL, Feb 24: Opposition
Mizo National Front on Thursday
filed an FIR with Mizoram
Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)
demanding a fresh inquiry into
the alleged irregularities in
sending 32 Mizoram students
to alleged fake Nalanda Institute
of Advance Studies in Kolkata.
The MNF demanded the inquiry
to find out where the Rs
42 lakh is, which Chief Minister
Lal Thanhawla claimed the
institute had returned to the
State Government.
“Whereas the refunded
money is supposed to be credited
to the account of Mizoram
Building & Other Construction
Workers Welfare Board or the
State Government account,
neither of this has happened. It
must be found out where is the
money refunded by the institute,”
the MNF demanded.
The MNF said that spending
of MBOCWWB Fund itself was
in violation of the MBOCWWB
rules, and should be inquired and
those responsible for illegal
spending be punished.
The MNF said the Mizoram
Government paid the institute
Rs 1,28,19,200 for the 32 Mizoram
students to study a
three-year hotel management
course. “Whereas the amount
can be cleared in installments
within three years, the Mizoram
Government paid it in
three installments within 43
days,” the MNF said and asked
why the government was in
such a hurry to pay such a large
sum of money. In September
2014, the students were admitted
to a hotel management institute
at Salt Lake in Kolkata.
After a few semesters, the
students, which included 20
girls and 12 boys, realised that
the institute named Nalanda
Institute of Advanced Studies (
NIAS) did not have requisite
recognition.
Following pressure by Mizo
National Front, Mizoram Youth
Commission chairman T
Sangkunga and Labour, Employment
& Industrial Training
Minister Lalrinmawia Ralte had
resigned last year.
Additional secretary for Information
and Communication
Technology Rotluanga was also
suspended. The officer in 2014,
as then Director of Labour,
Employment and Industrial
Training, had signed a MoU
with the Kolkata-based Nalanda
Institute of Advanced Studies
(NIAS). The two-member
inquiry commission in its report
submitted to Mizoram
Government on July 4 last year,
found no direct involvement of
LE&IT Minister Lalrinmawia
Ralte and Mizoram Youth Commission
(MYC) chairman T
Sangkunga.
MNF vice president and
former Minister R Tlanghmingthanga
said that while the
inquiry commission was supposed
to probe into why the
MoU was signed with the fake
institution; why the MoU was
signed for only one year when
it was a three-year course; on
whose authority the welfare
board fund amounting to over
Rs 500 lakh was misused and
as to why the course fee
amounting to Rs128.20 lakh
was given to NIAS in a single
installment right after signing
of MoU, it only found out that
Lalrinmawia Ralte and T
Sangkung were not involved in
the selection for sponsorship of
32 students of NIAS. “The government
was not intending on
finding the irregularities behind
sending 32 students to the fake
institution,” Tlanghmingthanga
alleged. -Correspondent, Assam Tribune
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