The autumn session of the Assam assembly concluded on Friday, with the last two days witnessing an uproar as opposition MLAs sought a discussion over the allegation that a company linked to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma received government subsidy.
As Speaker Biswajit Daimary refused an immediate discussion on the issue, Congress MLAs along with the lone CPI(M) legislator and an Independent MLA staged walk out on both the days.
The Assam CM found himself in the eye of a storm on Wednesday after Congress Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi alleged that a company run by Sarma’s wife had received a grant of Rs 10 crore last year from the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industry (MoFPI) as part of credit linked subsidy. The PM Kisan Sampada Yojana is a comprehensive package which aims to create modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management.
Riniki Bhuyan Sarma is the Chief Managing Director of Pride East Entertainments Private Limited, one of the largest media companies in the Northeast that owns two news channels, a newspaper, a digital news portal and multiple entertainment channels.
Gaurav Gogoi wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “PM Modi launched the Kisan Sampada scheme to double the income of farmers of India. But in Assam, Chief Minister Sarma used his influence to help his wife’s firm get Rs 10 crore as part of credit linked subsidy. Are Central government schemes meant to enrich BJP?”
However, the CM has categorically denied the charges saying that neither his wife nor the company she is associated with has ever received any financial subsidies from the Union Government.
Gogoi provided MoFPI records available in public domain, which show that Pride East was among the 70 ‘project execution agencies’ cleared for setting up agro processing cluster projects under the scheme.
Riniki was listed as the lead promoter of the project to set up such a project at Darigazi village in Assam’s Nagaon district, one of seven under the scheme in the state. For this project, estimated to cost Rs 25 crore, a grant of Rs 10 crore – the maximum amount available under the scheme – was approved on November 10, 2022, records show.
Although records from the Parliament share by Gogoi as well as the ministry website, show that grant-in-aid of Rs 10 crore under a Central scheme was approved for Riniki’s company to set up a food processing unit in Assam, Riniki has said that her firm had not claimed the subsidy.
She has also threatened Gaurav Gogoi with a defamation suit for the same amount.
In a statement, Riniki said the company “has neither claimed nor received a single paisa of government subsidy, despite meeting all the eligibility criteria”. “This is nothing but an attack to malign and defame a 17-year old Assamese enterprise, which has adhered to every aspect of the law, headed by a woman entrepreneur. To protect the reputation of our hardworking employees from this slanderous campaign of Sri Gaurav Gogoi… I am thereby constrained to file a case of defamation with 10 crore in damages against him,” she stated.
However, Gaurav Gogoi has continued to press the charges, and has also requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order an enquiry into how the commerce ministry approved the grant.