Rs 40-cr scam in Assam vety dept

GUWAHATI, April 1: It is as if scandals have become an inevitable fate for the State's Veterinary Department. Because of the misdeeds of some unscrupulous elements, who are an insignificant minority of point four to point five in size in the about 8,000-strong army of the Departments' staff, the Veterinary Department is again in the news. This time it is a scandal involving Rs 40 crore borrowed from the World Bank to bring about a white revolution in the State. No doubt, like the previous Rs 400-crore Veterinary LoC scam, this time also the honest officers and employees of the Department, who constitute the overwhelming majority, are again made to hang their faces in shame. Meanwhile, the state government has instituted an enquiry, to probe into the alleged irregularities concerning the procurement of jersey cattle from Australia and placed under suspension Shivaji Kumar Barua, Livestock Census Officer, Directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, Chenikuthi, Guwahati. He had allegedly left for Australia "without any intimation to Government... leaving behind the other members of the Committee (which went to select jersey bulls and pregnant heifers in Australia) with ulterior motive". But, this part of the story involves only around Rs 1 crore. Despite there being indications that many heads will roll in this connection in the days to come, the question remains as to what will happen to the cases of irregularities, misuse of money and wastage of time in matters of implementing the entire Livestock Development Component Project by the Veterinary Department. The project was drawn under the World Bank-sponsored Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural Services Project (ARIASP), which has been under implementation since August 1995. The Rs 40 crore loan provided by the World Bank was a soft loan. The time frame for implementation of the project was fixed as five years. The project was to complement Government of Assam's Intensive Cattle Development Programme (ICDP) for livestock development. For that purpose, assistance in five specific areas were initially envisaged. These were - expanding the artificial insemination (AI) programme, strengthening the disease diagnostic and monitoring laboratories, supporting fodder production, promoting private involvement in AI and veterinary services and strengthening the training efforts. Under the AI expansion programme, a frozen semen procurement venture was launched for artificial insemination of cows in the State as there was no breeding bull of high merit in the State. Though there was a guideline to procure such semen "through direct contracting procedures," vested interests in the Veterinary Department showed more interest, allegedly, in procuring semen through middlemen and obviously with a biased agreement making the terms and conditions more favourable for a Maharashtra-based firm and for its middleman. The result was discouraging for the farmers and for the Department. The amount involved here was about Rs 56 lakh. The Department also spent around Rs 60 lakh for procuring 14 vehicles, including two mini buses. But the nine jeeps and two pick-up vans procured for "implementing " the project, are now allegedly used by some of the officers for their personal purposes. One of the jeeps has been allegedly used by the State's Minister of State for Veterinary for the last about two years! These vehicles were meant for carrying the semen and liquid nitrogen (required for preservation of semen) and for the follow-up activities, like training the farmers. Now, the Department is allegedly hiring vehicles from private parties to transport the semen and liquid nitrogen! Similarly, though it has its own nitrogen plants - eleven in total - the Department is procuring liquid nitrogen from private firms, without caring to make its own plants operative. Between 1998 and 2000, the Department spent over Rs 50 lakh for the purpose of procuring liquid nitrogen! Perhaps all these will provide one with the tip of the ice berg as to what is going on in the Department. The Department, despite having the scope to directly contact the Governments of the foreign countries like Australia, on matters related to procurement of pure-bred jersey cattle (ic, pregnant heifers and young breeding bulls), rather appointed a city-based middleman and a foreign livestock export firm, sent a team to Australia for selecting the cattle. In the process, it flouted the norms resulting in the institution of an inquiry by the state government.