Ahead of 2019 Assembly polls, Maharashtra BJP is facing serious corruption charges
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has exposed many chinks in the Devendra Fadnavis government. The top auditing agency has come down heavily on lack of planning and foresight in the government while implementing several schemes.
The CAG mentioned that the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) incorrectly approved a scheme for rehabilitation of Project Affected People on encumbered land ignoring security concerns of Union government agencies resulting in undue favour to a private developer. The state had decided that SRA should scrutinise and process proposals by private developers for providing tenements to 7,500 Project Affected People.
“Scrutiny of records revealed that SRA sanctioned a slum rehabilitation scheme on a private land owned by a developer and located in village Mahul for construction of 8,582 PAP tenements,” CAG mentioned. The CAG stated total area of the land was 156,640.90sqm, out of which an area measuring 28,418.78sqm was in possession of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre as buffer zone for its security purposes.
The CAG also has flagged concerns over the implementation of health schemes in the state, particularly the Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayee Arogya Yojana (RGJAY) and Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).
As far as RGJAY is concerned, the government had obtained data of total number of ration card holders without any details such as name and ration card number. Therefore, the authenticity of the beneficiaries covered under the scheme could not be verified. It observed that excess insurance premium was paid in respect of all white ration card holders. A huge balance of surplus premium of Rs 47.63 crore was lying with the insurance company which was due for remittance to the government.
The CAG stated that with regards to PMSSY, an audit of upgradation of government medical colleges (GMCs) of Mumbai and Nagpur revealed that no gap analysis of existing facilities and future requirements in tertiary care was carried out. It has observed inherent flaws in planning including faulty survey, non-acquisition of private and forest land, and mid-course changes in the scope of the project led to huge escalation of Gosikhurd Irrigation Project which was declared a national project.
Since the approval of the project in 1983, the cost escalated from Rs 372 crore to Rs 18,495 crore and it is still incomplete. The project was approved in March 1983 to create an irrigation potential of 2,50,800 hectares of land in Bhandara, Nagpur and Chandrapur district. However, till date, the potential created is 50,317 hectare, which is far less than the target.
“Even after completing 34 years and spending Rs 9,712.09 crore, only 20 per cent of envisaged irrigation potential could be realised. The departmental supervision was minimal resulting in substandard quality of work. The dam water was being polluted due to unregulated release of sewage in the connecting rivers,” the report has stated.
(Courtesy of Mail Today)