Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren said on Friday that the Reserve Bank of India will lift the ban on payment of all State government bills and cheques as there is now “zero balance” in the overdraft. He has uploaded the financial figures on his Facebook account.
Mr. Biren said that the State government had taken a loan of ₹400 crore to tide over the overdraft of ₹315 crore.
He said that soon after the overdraft came to his notice, he had removed Deputy Chief Minister Y. Joykumar as Finance Minister and T. Biswajit as Public Works Department and Power Minister.
Mr. Biren maintained that he took over the two portfolios to look into the charge of “drawing of excess amounts” by the departments and these may be reallocated to the other Ministers once the ban on the overdraft was lifted. He said that the Cabinet would soon take a decision on whether the results of the banned recruitment tests in various departments should be announced now.
Mr. Biswajit, who met some senior Ministers in Delhi, said on Wednesday soon after returning here that the overdraft would be lifted soon.
He told reporters here that the overdraft was a “normal happening” in Manipur. “It is somewhat questionable that it is projected as some sort of scam now,” Mr. Biswajit said.
He was stripped of his portfolios on the charge that these two departments had drawn “huge amounts” during the period when the model code of conduct was in force. He claimed that these departments had not drawn any amount in excess of the budgetary provisions.
