Water shed reservoir which are supposed to distribute to selected beneficiaries running green houses in the state were found to have been installed at a private owned water bottling firm owned by the near and dear one of state horticulture and soil conservation top officials.
In a sting operation conducted by Imphal Times reporters, such water tanks were found to have been installed at a private hospital in Imphal west, at a private firm owned by a relatives of the director of Horticulture and Soil Conservation department at Kameng Nongada and at a newly set up water bottling plant at Kangla Sangom ang Awang Leikai in Imphal East.
According to our findings, the said water shed reservoirs were sanction under the Horticulture Mission for North East and Himalayans States for district wise allocation and installation of water storage tank under the water shed development project from the year 2002 to 2012. Amount released for the purposed is over rupees 55 crores.
Our reporters also found out that under the scheme, the state Horticulture and Soil conservation department was advice to distribute 50,000 litre capacity and 1 lakh capacity water reservoirs to selected beneficiaries across the state who were running green house and cultivation works at various places.
When our reporter tried to find out how the beneficiaries were selected and how many such water reservoirs has been installed at which placed none of the department authority are willing to provide a blue print for that.
