Poor AIDS control deprives Goa of WB aid

The centrally-sponsored programme for prevention and control of HIV virus was started in Goa during 1992. The state’s poor record in the AIDS control effort, however comes as a surprise, since not long a state level high power committee had been set up here under the chairmanship of the then governor, Romesh Bhandari, to monitor the effective implementation of these campaigns.

At a press conference to mark the start of this effort, Bhandari had personally held out the assurance that the one point programme of this committee would be to prevent new HIV infections. The finding of the CAG report gives the impression that after Bhandari’s departure, all his assurances have been forgotten. The CAG report also contains a long list of government schemes which did not materialise, resulting in a large waste of public money.

In one case, a wind energy conversion system installed by the electricity department at a cost of Rs 10.43 lakh at Cananguinim, in Kopem taluka was dismantled at a cost of bringing it down came to Rs 2.09 lakh, on account of low generation of electricity due to low wind speed and also due to court orders for vacating the land which was not acquired , rendering the expenditure of Rs 12.52 lakh incurred on its installation, unfruitful.

Similarly, a Goa water intake system, constructed at a cost of Rs 6 lakh, to meet the water requirements of a prawn hatchery of the Fisheries department at Denaulim, had to be dismantled at a cost of Rs 6.7 lakh due to inadequate yield of sea water, and problems faced by traditional fishermen operating in the area. In another case, the state lost interest amounting to Rs 35.59 lakh due to the grant of interest-free mobilisation advance of Rs 150 lakh to the contractor of the new Mandovi bridge. In addition, the contractor was also given interest-free financial assistance of Rs 50 lakh, not covered under the terms of the agreement, the report said.