Report says Modi govt has wasted an excess Rs 452.5 crore on a canal scheme.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its report of 2007-08 tabled in the Assembly on Thursday has strongly criticised the Gujarat government’s irregularities in executing the Sujalam Sufalam Yojna (SSY) for water resources management in the state.
The CAG noted that the state government has wasted an excess Rs452.5 crore for the canal project and spent Rs911 crore against the estimate of Rs458.50 crore. The government although spending an excessive amount has failed to finish and execute the project.
The report noted that Government launched the SSY project for water resources management, watershed development, creation of irrigation infrastructure and increasing supply of drinking water.
The Government did not obtain Central Finance of Rs4317.61 crore as anticipated. The projects commenced in September 2004 and were targeted to complete by December 2005 at cost of Rs458.50 crore. They have not been completed despite expenditure of Rs911 crore.
There were cases of non achievement of physical targets, and delay in execution of works. As against the target of 32 drinking water supply schemes for providing water to 4,904 villages and 34 towns, only six schemes were completed, and only 2,524 villages and 19 towns were covered till March 2008.
A review disclosed that the progress of these projects was hampered mainly due to large number of contracts awarded to individual contractors; delay in land acquisition and in obtaining permission from Forest, Railway and Road authorities.
In many cases, estimates were inflated and unrealistic which resulted in contractors enjoying undue benefits. Ignoring the decision to award a contract to a contractor, 102 contracts involving Rs396.30 crore were awarded to 16 contractors.
Due to non-completion of four pumping station projects, an expenditure of Rs255.70 crore on Hathmati-Guhai Pipeline Project became an idle investment. The report further said that pump projects were not carried out from Piyaj-Dharoi Pipeline Project constructed at a cost of Rs266.47 crore rendering the expenditure unfruitful since November 2004.
CAG checked and assessed various departments of state Government and their accounts revealed instances of fraudulent payment, losses, infructuous, wasteful expenditure, unfruitful expenditure, blockage of fund and other irregularities of Rs104.13 crore.
The irregularities also included expenditure of Rs38.52 crore in Narmada, Water Resources, Water Supply and Kalpsar Department.
The Narmada department also spent excessive Rs29.15 crore on construction of head-works of Utavali-Gunda Water Resources Project (lift irrigation scheme) with overlapping command area of Narmada project.
Cases of violation of contractual obligation undue favour to contractors involving Rs35.92 crore were noticed in Narmada, Water Resources, Water Supply and Kalpasar departments. This included a case of unauthorised financial aid to the contractor by releasing excess amount of Rs28.41 crore ignoring contractual obligation.
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