Whether it is by way of cash or kind.  The instances of misuse and abuse of funds collected for disaster victims applies as much to Goa as to other parts of the country. We have first hand experience of how funds contributed to the Chief Minister’s relief fund in Goa have been misused and in the case of the Parrikar government very selectively used. BY NARENDRA KAUSHIK.

AS AN overwhelmed country queues up to donate in cash and kind for victims of the tsunami, bus operators in Sri Ganganagar, a border district in Rajasthan, are running away from donation-seekers. They have every reason to do so. They still have not tracked down Rs 1,11,000 they collected and deposited with the District Transport Authority (DTA) for the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund for Kargil martyrs in 1999. Despite local police and the lokayukta of Rajasthan state having probed the case, to date only Rs 44,000 has been recovered. The rest of the money is still lost.

The bus operators, who ran from pillar to post to seek action against the DTA officials and escape the ‘illegal’ recovery, the vindictive Authority imposed on them, are obviously frustrated. They find the word ‘relief’ a misnomer. “Naturally we feel the pain of the tsunami­ affected people. But how do we trust the relief funds?” asks Pawan Kataria, a bus operator and local Congress leader. Kataria claimed that he and other bus operators had no interest left in the relief funds. He anticipated another multi- crore scam in the tsunami relief fund.           

 ‘Illegal’ Collection!

Ironically, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office cannot guarantee that there will not be a repeat of Ganganagar in the tsunami funds. The most it can do is to warn people to keep off the ‘illegal’ collection of money done on roadsides, in markets and residential colonies. “It is totally illegal to collect money in public places. It is nothing but begging,” said an IAS officer in the PMO, adding that the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund only accepted money through cheques.

The officer could not believe that people contributed to the Fund on roads and public places. He said the PMO received money mostly from corporates and individuals who wanted tax benefits. A number of nationalised banks also accept donations directly for the PM’s Fund. All these contributions are exempt from income tax under 80 G of the Income Tax act 1961.

The Prime Minister’s office did not answer how it planned to spend the money, on the grounds that the PM’s Fund was a permanent feature and got replenished off and on. They claimed that it was a regularly audited account where every single cheque was issued and drawn from the bank with the approval of the PM. The banks charge no collection fee even when cheques are drawn on outstation banks.

But these are the safeguards applicable more to the PMO and in no way guarantee that there will be no mismanagement and non-utilization of the donated amount. After all, during collection of the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for Kargil martyrs, there were many reports on non-utilization of the contributions. Many cheques were left unattended and allowed to become outdated in the PMO. So much so that M N Das, a Rajya Sabha MP raised the matter in the Parliament. Sources who were privy to the PMO room where the cheques were piled, say that a lot of people availed temporary tax benefits, though their cheques were not encashed by the PMO. Das, who is now bedridden in Orissa, recollects that he raised the matter after he got to know that contributions of certain individuals were not utilized.

 Mismanagement

Though the tsunami was barely 14 days old, there are already reports of mismanagement pouring in from different quarters. Tonnes of utensils, blankets, bed sheets, biscuits, medicines and clothes have been lying at the Bharatiya Janata Party office because the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has not agreed to carry it to the affected areas unless the district administration is allowed to distribute it. The BJP obviously wants to distribute it on its own to extract political mileage.

“We have requested the government. It says hand it over to us. We want it to be distributed through our organisation. It is always better to distribute relief material through party workers and NGOs,” says general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Chouhan also alleged that the government had not facilitated distribution of relief material by BJP leaders. Alleging discrimination, he claimed that the government did not provide a helicopter to Jaswant Singh, leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, though it gave one to Mukul Wasnik and Sanjay Singh. The BJP will raise these issues in an all-party meeting on Sunday. The meeting has been called to discuss the tsunami and its aftermath.

Chouhan also cautioned the government against the mismanagement of funds. Ironically, the BJP failed to do just that in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab where two of its leaders Hansraj Nakra and Satpal Sarin were arrested for pocketing funds collected for the Kargil martyrs. The duo collected Rs 3.28 lakh, but deposited only Rs1.23 lakh with the PM Relief Fund.

But why single out BJP leaders? Comptroller Auditor General of India, India’s watchdog on

government money, found irregularities in the utilisation of government funds during the super cyclone in Orissa and the earthquake in Gujarat as well. In Kerala, the Kerala Vyapari Sangh, a body of businessmen belonging to several districts, broke off after certain members accused the president of the organisation of bungling funds collected for the Kargil Martyrs and Gujarat earthquake.

Courtesy: Sunday Mid day

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