The alleged Rs 1,000-crore financial irregularity in North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) is fast-becoming a political albatross for the ruling Congress in Assam. With assembly polls due early next year, the issue has heated up the political environment in the state.
Pushed to the wall by public outcry and political scrutiny by the opposition parties, the Congress has threatened to reopen the Letter of Credit (LoC) scandal of former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, who was from Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the main opposition party in the state assembly now.
It remains a million dollar question as what stopped the ruling party from investigating the LoC scandal. “If you go through records, reopening LoC case was always in our agenda. This matter was discussed many a time in the assembly,” said government spokesperson and state’s industry minister Pradyut Bordoloi.
“The CBI could not prosecute Mahanta as the Governor did not allow it. Now, he does not enjoy any immunity. So, we want the CBI to reinvestigate the case,” said Bordoloi.
When asked why the state government had decided to reopen the LoC case, Bordoloi could not give any satisfactory reply, thus indicating that the Congress wanted to use the issue to corner the AGP in the wake of the NC Hills case.
Bordoloi said that the state government had “written” to the CBI for reopening the case.
The opposition parties and several civil organisations have alleged that the government was shielding seven cabinet ministers of Tarun Gogoi government, who were allegedly involved in the case, by not allowing the CBI to investigate all the 33 departments of the autonomous council.
When asked to respond to this allegation, Bordoloi said, “We are fully cooperating with the CBI. It can investigate all the departments if it wants.”
