New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to frame guidelines for restructuring of National
Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED)
in order to stop embezzlement of funds by officials.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice
Manmohan asked the Ministry of Agriculture to convene a
meeting with at least five members of NAFED and the nodal
committee, set up following a court order, to frame a set of
guidelines and inform the court by next date of hearing.
"We direct the central government, nodal committee members
and five members of the Board to frame guidelines for
re-structuring of NAFED," said the Bench while hearing a
Public Interest Litigation.
The court also expressed anguish for alleged grant of
public fund without any security and involvement of its
officers in the fraud.
"We express our anguish over the way public money has
been siphoned of. NAFED grants the fund to people without any
security...., “the Bench added.
Meanwhile, the court was informed by the Ministry of
Agriculture that at least five FIRs have been registered by
CBI against the officials involved in the embezzlement of
grants.
The Bench took suo motu cognizance over an order of a
single judge in which he had referred the issue for
consideration by a larger bench.
The single judge had stated that the court was flooded
with petitions containing allegations against NAFED officials
about misuse of public funds and the Bench should pass an
appropriate direction in the interest of general public.
According to the judge, a direction was to be issued to
the Centre to remove the structural problems and regulate the
grants which were misused.
In a petition, it was alleged that NAFED officials
sanctioned loans to the applicants who are either connected
to them or have access to them.
NAFED officials give up the loan amount in case they fail
to repay the amount, which resulted in embezzlement of Rs
1600 crore.
PTI
