And the weaker sections be damned

The report on the other schemes are just as appalling. As the report declares, the result ofthe performance review discloses a common pattern of shortcomings in the execution of all the schemes. It indicts the concerned ministries and states for not ensuring the attainment of the stated objectives in the most cost-effective manner and within the given timeframe, thus rendering the schemes without quantitative and qualitative delivery.The ministries have restricted themselves to the mechanical disbursement of funds to state governments without any reference to effective utilisation. The ministries were also unable to ensure the validity of data and facts reported by the state governments. The CAG found that overstatement of figures of physical and financial performance was rampant. The ministries were more concerned with expenditure than project objectives and the state governments8217; attitude to implementation was generally indifferent. Finally, nobody could be held responsible for the shortfall in performance, poor delivery and criminal misuse of funds intended for the poor and weak.

Take themalaria eradication programme. This national effort has been in operation for the last 45 years but has failed to reduce the incidence of the disease. India now accounts for 85 per cent of malaria cases in the Southeast Asia region. The number of reported malaria cases increased from 21.26 lakh to 30.36 lakh in 1992-96. Worse, programme funds were being diverted by state governments for purposes other than eradication. In Nagaland, for instance, the director of health services diverted Rs 12 lakh for the unauthorised purchase of office furniture and equipment. The Chandigarh government spent Rs 31.18 lakh for the construction of community shauchalayas, the purchase of stationary and livery, etc. Thirty-five Ambassador cars and five pickup vans valued at Rs 70.85 lakh were procured by the UP government.

There is a serious shortfall of insecticide spray in areas of high malaria incidence, said the CAG report. In high-tech Andhra Pradesh, the shortfall was as high as 91 per cent, on par with Bihar, and inOrissa it was 98 per cent. Delay and failure in delivering treatment is criminally high chloroquine tablets valued at Rs 33.31 lakh were administered in the districts of Nagaon and Karbi Anglong in Assam during 1992-97 even though these districts had been declared chloroquine resistant. In Tamil Nadu, 13.72 lakh expired tablets valued at Rs 1.62 lakh were distributed to field units and doled out to patients.

The story of the Drought-Prone Areas Programme is equally dismal. After two decades of work and an expenditure of nearly Rs 2,195 crore, drought conditions show no improvement. In fact, drought-prone areas have increased from 55.3 million hectare in 1973 to 74.6 million hectare in 1995.

Afforesting programmes encouraging the planting of eucalyptus trees in five states aggravated drought conditions due to rapid evaporation of groundwater by the plantations themselves. Works for Rs 4.38 crore were executed through contractors in seven states, depriving the benefit of wage employment to local workers.State-level sanctioning committees did not meet regularly in five states, and nor did the central government and the states conduct studies to assess the impact of the programme on crops and the productivity of land, water and human resources in 1992-98.

A review of the tribal plan disclosed a lack of seriousness on the part of the ministry Social Justice and Empowerment and the state governments. The reported expenditure of Rs 1409.88 crore during 1992-98 contains errors amounting to at least Rs 369.85 crore on the basis of sample-checked cases, says the CAG audit. This includes Rs 115.29 crore advanced to implementing agencies whose utilisation was not obtained, Rs 85.88 crore diverted and Rs 38.71 crore misused for other works, and Rs 116.38 crore parked in various deposit accounts. The funds provided for assistance to poor Scheduled Tribes for income-generation schemes were vulnerable to abuse, the CAG says, in the absence of proper accountability procedures. In Andhra Pradesh, Special CentralAssistance SCA of Rs 35.36 lakh was used to purchase TVs, video players, fax machines and computers, and for the payment of insurance premia and other administrative expenses. The CEO of the Assam Tribal Development Authority spent Rs 4.03 crore on teaching kits, and the entire transaction is questionable.

The Himachal Pradesh government spent Rs 2.16 crore of SCA funds to hire a helicopter and Rs 2.94 crore on staff, vehicles etc. The Maharashtra government used SCA funds of Rs 3.68 crore to wipe out the losses of a corporation. The ministry, in turn, has taken no action against defaulting states which did not submit quarterly progress reports that8217;s eight out of 18 states. With no watch on the progress of utilisation of funds, the ministry continued to release grants to all states.

The story of the Command Area Development Programme CADP is no different. The programme was developed 25 years ago to bridge the gap between irrigation potential created in the country and its utilisation with itsfailure, farmers have been deprived of irrigation facilities despite adequate availability of water. According to the CAG report, individual components of the programme like construction of field channels and drains, land levelling, demonstrations of varieties of seed and crop production technologies etc, were undertaken in such an un-coordinated manner that it resulting in lopsided programme management. The ministry8217;s in this case, Water Resources control over execution was so weak that large investments, which included an expenditure of over Rs 2,339 crore during 1992-98, had not yielded optimum results. Typically, Rs 273.73 crore was spent on establishment in excess of the prescribed norms, underscoring the disproportionate emphasis on administrative overheads at the cost of core components,8217; says the report.

In five states, test checks disclosed that Rs 7.79 crore was spent in excess of prescribed norms in the construction of field drains and channels while Rs 13.97 crore was wasted with severalchannels and water-courses lying in various stages of disuse due to faulty design or because they were abandoned midway. Farmers were also deprived of irrigation management techniques in the absence of adaptive trials and demonstration by scientific institutions despite the fact that Rs 1,715 crore was spent on technologies by states like Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala. Financial irregularities and non-maintenance of inventories tell another story.

In conclusion, the report says that despite noble beginnings, all the projects have fallen by the wayside due to lack of focus, monumental neglect and governmental greed. In fact, all they have done is to create a lucrative business arrangement that benefits only bureaucrats and politicians, and the weaker and deprived sections be damned.