CAG finds non-utilisation of funds in Odisha irrigation projects; Oppositionn parties demand action

Senior Congress leader and MLA Suresh Routray said the government must punish those who were responsible for the "non-utilisation of funds and delay in project completion"

With the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) finding that the Odisha government was not able to use more than ₹842 crore of central funds for the irrigation sector between 2014 and 2020, the Opposition Congress and BJP demanded action against officials responsible for such an "inefficiency".

Senior Congress leader and MLA Suresh Routray said the government must punish those who were responsible for the "non-utilisation of funds and delay in project completion".

"The government has been taking action against corrupt and inefficient officers. Now, it must dismiss those responsible for the return of funds and delay in projects,” Mr. Routray said.

BJP Kisan Morcha president and former MLA Pradip Purohit also hit out at the "inefficient officials and engineers" for the non-utilisation of funds.

"This is an anti-farmer government and it has no such efforts to provide irrigation facilities for agriculture," he said.

The report on the State's performance on surface irrigation was tabled in the Assembly on Friday.

The auditor also covered 24 irrigation projects, which were completed or partly completed from January 2011 to March 2017.

The CAG detected several deficiencies in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the projects.

Though the State government had initiated various irrigation projects at a considerable cost in order to provide adequate water supply for farming, it was, however, noticed that the "objective was not fulfilled and this deprives farmers of irrigation facilities", the CAG said in its report.

During the period (2014-19) covered by this performance audit, the CAG checked five major irrigation projects, nine mega lift points (MLPs) and 10 minor irrigation projects for which a sum of ₹12,742.11 crore had been incurred up to March 2020.

Other than nine MLPs, project costs escalated in the "range between 182 and 4,596% due to delay of work", it pointed out.

Despite escalation, only one major initiative, the Upper Indravati Irrigation facility, was completed and the four other projects were in different stages of execution, the report said.

The performance audit of surface irrigation revealed several deficiencies in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the projects.

"The financial management of the test-checked projects was marred due to surrendering of funds resulting in non-completion of projects...," it said.

The auditor said there were also instances of loss of central assistance, parking of funds without utilisation, non-realisation of government revenue, non-adjustment of advances and inadmissible payment of tax.

The projects were found "deficient in preparation and execution of DPRs and incorrect calculation of benefit cost ratio (BCR)".

"These led to modifications in design and scope of work and revision in cost estimates affecting the schedule of implementation of the projects," it said.

Similarly, in spite of incurring an expenditure of ₹12,742.11 crore in all of the test-checked projects, the irrigation potential achieved was 1,22,418 hectare as against the proposed IP of 5,02,842 hectare, which constituted only 24% of the envisaged potential, the report mentioned.

Odisha's water resources minister Raghunandan Das said non-completion and non-achievement of irrigation potential are mostly due to problems in getting environment and forest clearance.

The CAG, however, said the delay was due to "deficient DPRs, defective survey and investigation, deficient design in the execution of the projects, and inadequate availability of water in the canals".

The auditor has also made some recommendations to the water resources department to improve financial and administrative management.