Guwahati, June 18: Assam Public Works, an NGO, today sought the expenditure report of Amtron, a state government undertaking, for the last two years on distribution of free laptops under the Anundoram Barooah scheme to meritorious students passing the HSLC examination.

The NGO sought the expenditure report based on the education department's reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application. "According to the RTI reply, 40,983 students in 2014-2015 and 53,148 in 2015-2016 received laptops under the Anundoram Barooah scheme. When we add up the funds allotted for training and distribution, Rs 1,038 per student in 2014-15 and Rs 1,180 per student in 2015-16, we get Rs 4,25,40,358 and Rs 6,05,88,720 in the respective years. We need to know where this money was spent," said Abhijeet Sharma, founder of Assam Public Works.

Amtron looked after the distribution of the laptops and was responsible for imparting training to the recipients on the basics of handling the devices. The NGO further alleged that former parliamentary affairs minister Bharat Chandra Narah and his "close aide" and Amtron managing director Dinesh S. Pegu have misappropriated funds "running into crores" meant for distribution of the laptops and training the recipients.

"A separate camp was supposed to be set up for training the recipients at the venue where the awards were distributed. However, no such camps were set up and no student received any training from Amtron. We need to know where the money went. Pegu was appointed by Bharat Narah and he misappropriated the money," alleged Sharma.