Progress of pilgrim towns goes slow

Lakhs of devotees visit Dehu and Alandi every year.

A move to develop pilgrimage towns is running two years behind schedule officials attribute it to lack of proper planning and guidelines by the state government. The slow pace of work was noted by principal auditor general of Maharashtra, who recently conducted an audit. The AG report shows that of the Rs 427.65 crore sanctioned to the Pune divisional commissioner’s office in the last three years, Rs 110.15 crore has been spent but none of the proposed works has been completed.

A pet project of the state government was announced to mark the 400th birth centenary of Sant Tukaram. The temple towns of Dehu, Bhandara Dongar, Alandi and Pandharpur were to see major infrastructure development. Lakhs of devotees converge on Dehu and Alandi every year to participate in Palkhi procession of Sant Tukaram and Dyaneshwar, which culminates in Pandharpur. The program was envisioned especially to equip and develop the areas especially for that occasion. Roads, bridges, toilets, bhakt niwas and other other works have to be taken up under this scheme. Construction of toilets in all temple towns was to be given special attention.

“After more than three years, from the receipt of funds in 2009-10, not a single work was completed till date of audit. A number of works was not initiated, due to non-finalisation of estimates, non granting of Technical Sanction, non-execution of tenders, non-acquisition of land etc. In other cases, work orders were issued without acquisition of land,” the audit report read.

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J M Gosavi, deputy secretary of the state government and special executive officer of the programme clarified that it was being carried out at the right pace. “As this is a special program, we are yet to get guidelines for issuance of completion certificates. Also we have answered the questions raised by the AG. We have said that the Rs 350 crore has been disbursed to various agencies for the project,” he said.

Senior officers talk about the slow pace of the project and point out how the announcement was made without proper survey or planning. “When the program was announced, we had to start from scratch. Naturally, implementation was delayed. We are running late,” the officer said.