New Delhi, July 28 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Wednesday asked the government to frame guidelines for the restructuring of the National Agricultural Marketing Federation (NAFED) and stop the embezzlement of public funds by officials of the cooperative.
Hearing a public interest litigation, a division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Manmohan directed the government, nodal committee and five members of the board to frame guidelines for a systematic restructuring of the organisation.
The court asked the agriculture ministry to convene a meeting and inform the court by next date of hearing.
The court also expressed its anguish over the misuse of public fund by NAFED officials.
‘We express our anguish the way public money has been siphoned off. The grant has been misused without security. You must regulate the grant itself,’ the bench told the ministry.
The court was informed that at least five FIRs have been registered against the officials involved in the embezzlement of grants.
The Bench took suo motu cognisance over a reference from a single judge stating that every day petitions were being filed with allegations against the NAFED officials about the misuse of public funds.
The single judge had referred the matter to a larger bench saying that in public interest it should pass an appropriate order to the government to remove the structural problems and regulate the misuse of grants.
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