With the Gauhati High Court admitting a Public Interest Litigation case submitted by the president of People’s Right to Information & Development Implementing Society of Mizoram (PRISM) Vanlalruata, the government of Mizoram is yet in another trouble that it can do without.

Members of the media were informed at a press conference called by PRISM at the Aizawl Press Club that the Gauhati High court had admitted a PIL case filed against the state government in connection with the mismanagement of funds from the police modernization scheme where a total of Rs 1789 lakhs had been spent within four financial years.

Talking to the media, Vanlalruata said he had submitted the PIL on December 14, 2006 and this was admitted as PIL number 82 of 2006 on December 19 yesterday. However, another PIL submitted by him on gross misclaim of compensation at the Tuirial Hydro-electric Project had not been admitted because of some missing documents. He said his lawyer told him that more annexure were needed for this particular PIL to be admitted.

“We are very concerned about the rampant corruption that is taking place in the state and we have been gathering information through the RTI Act. The PIL that has been admitted is based on information that we have received through the RTI Act on purchases made through funds for police modernization. We found that all the purchases had been made without call of tender and that the purchases were regularized later through the state purchase and advisory board. Since this is highly irregular, our organisation had no choice but to file a PIL,” Vanlalruata said.

Speaking about the hydel project, he said the PIL had been filed because there had been certain irregularities on claims made for compensation.On the misuse of funds for police modernization, Vanlalruata said Rs 293 lakhs had been spent in 2001-02 for purchasing 30 items while Rs 423 lakhs had been spent for 54 items during 2002-03. Then in 2003-04 Rs 716 had again been spent to purchase 47 different items among which were 900 pairs of stockings. During 2002-03, another 100 pairs of stockings, called anti-embolism stockings, had been purchased for Rs 1.6 lakhs.

In 2004-05, Rs 356 lakhs was spent to purchase 16 items among which was goat-proof wire mesh. The opposition parties had made a huge outcry when two mobile toilet vans, stockings and goat-proof wire meshed were purchased with the modernization funds furnished by the Centre.

Vanlalruata, while condemning the purchases as useless articles, said this was not why the PIL had been filed, but because there had been financial irregularities while making the purchases. He said in all cases of purchases made by the police department during the four years, no tender had called and that ex-post facto approval had been sought from the state purchase & advisory board after the purchases were made.

He also informed the press that apart from the two mentioned PILs, two more are in the pipeline which his organisation hopes to submit soon.

Also speaking at the press conference was PRISM’s advisor M. Lalmanzuala, a former IAS officer who said the PILs had been filed not because of hatred for some individuals, but for the good of the state.

Expressing his views about the Mizo society’s feeling towards PIL cases which are viewed with distaste, he said this was because of the wrong translation of one of the Ten Commandments in the Bible “Thou shalt not bear false witnesses against thy neighbour”. He said this particular commandment had been translated as “Thous shalt not bear witness against they neighbour” where the ‘false’ had been left out.

He said it is for this reason that members of the Mizo society do not like pointing fingers at others. He said offences were on the rise because people do not like accusing others of wrongdoing and that this was one of  the great faults in Mizo society.

The Khasi Jaintia Presbyterian (KJP) Church will used a portion of the sermon time in church to enlighten the people on environmental preservation and disaster management. The decision to use the altar of the church was taken at a workshop held in Jowai town.

Informing about the resolution after the church eleders were distressed to see and learn about the large environmental degradation that has cast dark clouds to the state, the Secretary of the KJP, Rev.G.S.Lyttan SAID, ‘During the workshop, the church elders felt that it is imperative to simultaneously used the pulpit to spread the message of Christ and the importance to preserve our environment to prevent future natural or man made calamities’.

Disclosing the church concern prompt them take the issue of environmental disaster and the importance of training in disaster management, Rev Lyttan the unscientific coal, limestone mining and the huge destruction of the state forest  as ‘extremely dangerous, if an earthquake or other sort of natural fury’.
‘The damage will be huge if an earthquake of massive scale occurred and calamities like drought, landslide and other epidemic looms large, if we go on like this’, felt the church leader, adding,  ‘to ensure the idea percolate down to the grassroots, the church elders will be advise to use certain of the period of religious discourse to enlightened the believers on environmental degradation and management’
The church also called on the other religious institutions and the NGOs to join them to enlighten the people on the important subject, informed Reverend Lyttan, adding,  the Government  should also make the constituted committee on disaster management functional as to enable the people to be more aware about disaster management. 

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