Manipur Chief Election Officer Rajesh Agrawal on Friday said the sanctioning of payments by the government to Kuki insurgent groups under Suspension of Operation (SoO) does not violate the Model Code of conduct (MCC).
The Congress party on Thursday alleged that the state government released Rs 15,70,32,000 to banned militant groups under SoO on February 1 and another Rs 92,65,950 on March 1, violating the model code of conduct.
The CEO office said it received clarification from the Central Home and Finance departments that an amount of Rs 15.703 crore was released as a "backlog monthly stipend" for SoO groups under KNO and UPF for the months of October 2020 to September 202l.
A sum of Rs 6,000 per cadre per month for approved strength of 1122 cadres of KNO and 1059 cadres of UPF was released as a part of the regular ongoing programme since 2008, said the CEO’s statement.
Quoting the department concerned, the CEO office said that a sanctioned amount of Rs 1.02 crore was for payment of financial benefits to surrenderees as per Revised Scheme for surrender cum rehabilitation of militants in the Northeast states and the same is not related to SoO groups.
“Since the beneficiaries of the above scheme were already identified and approved before the announcement of the election and enforcement of the model code of conduct, there is no violation of the model code of conduct,” the CEO, Manipur said.
