The Meghalaya government has come under scrutiny for allegedly mishandling the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), as reported by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). The CAG’s critical report indicates that over ₹2.15 crore was improperly diverted for non-disaster relief related expenses, including donations to other states and the cleaning of the Shillong Secretariat.
Investigations revealed that ₹2 crore was transferred to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) without the necessary approval from the State Executive Committee (SEC), with a portion of this amount categorized as a “loan.” The SDRF is explicitly defined as a restricted fund subject to stringent regulations that prohibit its use for lending purposes to other government accounts.
Moreover, the report outlines that part of the diverted funds supported high-profile donations, including ₹1 crore sent to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Relief Fund and another ₹1 crore allocated for relief efforts for Cyclone Fani victims in Odisha. Although framed as humanitarian aid, the CAG emphasized that such expenditures contravene financial guidelines governing SDRF allocations.
In addition to donations, the CAG pointed out that administrative expenditures were also charged to the SDRF. For instance, in March 2020, ₹15.45 lakh was diverted to the Secretariat Administration Department for sanitization efforts in the Shillong Secretariat. This use of disaster relief funds for general maintenance activities was flagged by the CAG as a significant violation, clarifying that SDRF resources should be preserved solely for aiding natural disaster victims.
In October 2023, the department acknowledged the inappropriateness of these fund usages and indicated plans to present the issue to the SEC for “regularisation,” which suggests an intent to validate these expenditures retrospectively. However, as of February 2024, there has been no further communication regarding the status of this regularisation or efforts to recover the misallocated funds, leading to ongoing concerns about unresolved financial irregularities.