Nagaland Students Demand Action Against Alleged Misappropriation of Fellowship Funds

The chief minister has assured action on the matter soon after the Lokayukta submits its report.

New Delhi: A hunger strike called by a powerful student body of Nagaland – demanding the state’s action on alleged misappropriation of funds meant for fellowships disbursed by the Department of Higher and Technical Education (DHTE) – turned ugly with the police launching a baton charge on the protesters.

The students were demanding action against the DHTE officials involved in the misuse of funds based on the latest Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report. The report, which took into account fund utlisation till March 31, 2017, said that the books showed misappropriation of funds amounting to Rs 1.3 crore. The funds were meant for its technical scholarship scheme.

Called by the All Nagaland College Students’ Union (ANCSU), the hunger strike carried out by its members on June 4 was preceded by a series of protests by students since the CAG report became public in September 2018. On September 22, 2018, the ANCSU wrote a letter to the director of DHTE demanding an answer. Last October, the director reportedly wrote back stating that the said amount “had already been recovered and depositing back to the government account.” It was said that the amount was given as “a loan” to some officials and had since been returned.

“However, a reply received on May 6, 2019, by the ANGSU to its RTI on the issue showed no record or documents as to which all officials did the department loaned the money to. Failing to get a response from the director, we demanded action against him. The money, as per the CAG report, was the remaining amount after disbursing the fellowships. So, as per the rule, the director should have returned the sum to the state exchequer,” Benjon Lonchar, vice-president of ANCSU, told The Wire from Dimapur. He said deadline of May 25 was given to the director to come clean on the names.

DHTE runs three fellowship schemes – State Technical Scholarship, Post Matric Scholarship and Merit-cum-Means based Scholarship. The CAG report stated that official records till March 2017 showed that DHTE received Rs 3.30 crore (from 2015-1017) under State Technical Scholarship scheme from the state government, out of which 1.81 crore was disbursed to 2,175 students by direct benefit transfer.

There was a balance of Rs 1.49 crore. The CAG’s examination of the DHTE’s bank account showed that Rs 1.32 crore of the remaining amount was used for purposes other than scholarships even though it was strictly meant for it. One of the expense heads said an amount of 40 lakh was used for the farewell function of a retiring director. The CAG report also said an amount of Rs. 51.87 lakh “was (also) not ascertainable”.

On not receiving an answer from the director, on May 31, ANCSU members, which belongs to the student unions of the state’s 19 colleges, held a dharna in front of the DHTE office demanding his resignation. Benjon said: “By now, some of those officials may have retired and some transferred to other departments.”

Scaling up the protest, ANCSU mobilised the state’s college students and announced a hunger strike in Dimapur, demanding that the state government take appropriate action. It also called for a day-long Dimapur bandh on June 4. The state police, saying that there was no permission to hold the hunger strike, launched a baton charge on the protesters in which several students were injured. Some ANCSU office bearers who were arrested were later released. The issue took an ugly turn with the public siding with the students’ right to know about misappropriation of money meant for them, leading chief minister Neiphiu Rio to intervene.

Following a meeting with the ANCSU office bearers on June 5, the hunger strike has been called off. Benjon said: “There is a verbal assurance given by the chief minister based on which we have decided to call off the strike. The chief minister said the state Lokayukta is already looking into the CAG notings on the department and would soon submit its report. Based on the report, the state government would take action.”

“On that assurance, we have decided to back off. All we want is that allegation of corruption must be handled appropriately. We shall be monitoring the issue,” he added.