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The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has found “glaring deficiencies and irregularities” in the manner in which investment approvals had been granted to States and funds released.
Noting that creation of irrigation potential in the country was on the decline, the PAC, in its report on the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP), has recommended that the Union government set up an institutional monitoring mechanism, in consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) and the Finance Ministry, to avoid time and cost overruns.
Taking umbrage at the Centre's granting of approvals for irrigation projects without proper scrutiny and monitoring, the PAC strongly recommended a basic restructuring of the programme in its report tabled in Parliament on Friday. “Investment approvals lacking adequate groundwork, and often based on simple desk study, were granted to States for AIBP water projects,” the report said.
Addressing a press conference on the report, PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi described the irregularities in AIBP as a big scam. “I cannot put a figure to it but this is a scam bigger than many others. It is a complex web of irregularities leading to a huge wastage of public money. For example, there are canals without a drop of water and no possibility of it because the headworks were not made in schemes that were claimed to be completed.”
He identified Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur and Kerala as a few States that were lagging in this aspect. The PAC released, to back its findings, a CD with photographs of incomplete projects.
The panel has asked the Water Resources Ministry to conduct a probe into projects that were incomplete and having been certified by States as completed under the AIBP. The panel has sought real-time project-wise details within six months.
The report points out that of the 253 major, medium and Extension Renovation Maintenance (ERM) projects that were sanctioned under the AIBP between October and March 2008, only 100 were reported to have been completed. Twelve of these “reportedly completed projects” were found to be incomplete or non-commissioned.
Irked by the absence of data on the contribution of the AIBP towards the created irrigation potential, the PAC observed that the responsibility of the Ministry of Water Resources did not end merely with creation of dams, canals and other irrigation structures. “Since large amounts of Central funds are involved, the Ministry must monitor and verify the actual utilisation of irrigation potential, without which the benefits of irrigation water will not reach farmers.”
The PAC report categorically stated that that the Union government must insist on scrutinising the Detailed Project Report and the Benefit Cost Ratio, which formed the basis for the techno-economic scrutiny of a project, to assess the economic viability before granting the requisite investment clearances to State governments.
The Ministry should devise a new mechanism to ensure that water was made available till the completion of the projects for the farmers, who were the ultimate users, it said.
Noting that creation of irrigation potential in the country was on the decline, the PAC, in its report on the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP), has recommended that the Union government set up an institutional monitoring mechanism, in consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) and the Finance Ministry, to avoid time and cost overruns.
Taking umbrage at the Centre's granting of approvals for irrigation projects without proper scrutiny and monitoring, the PAC strongly recommended a basic restructuring of the programme in its report tabled in Parliament on Friday. “Investment approvals lacking adequate groundwork, and often based on simple desk study, were granted to States for AIBP water projects,” the report said.
Addressing a press conference on the report, PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi described the irregularities in AIBP as a big scam. “I cannot put a figure to it but this is a scam bigger than many others. It is a complex web of irregularities leading to a huge wastage of public money. For example, there are canals without a drop of water and no possibility of it because the headworks were not made in schemes that were claimed to be completed.”
He identified Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur and Kerala as a few States that were lagging in this aspect. The PAC released, to back its findings, a CD with photographs of incomplete projects.
The panel has asked the Water Resources Ministry to conduct a probe into projects that were incomplete and having been certified by States as completed under the AIBP. The panel has sought real-time project-wise details within six months.
The report points out that of the 253 major, medium and Extension Renovation Maintenance (ERM) projects that were sanctioned under the AIBP between October and March 2008, only 100 were reported to have been completed. Twelve of these “reportedly completed projects” were found to be incomplete or non-commissioned.
Irked by the absence of data on the contribution of the AIBP towards the created irrigation potential, the PAC observed that the responsibility of the Ministry of Water Resources did not end merely with creation of dams, canals and other irrigation structures. “Since large amounts of Central funds are involved, the Ministry must monitor and verify the actual utilisation of irrigation potential, without which the benefits of irrigation water will not reach farmers.”
The PAC report categorically stated that that the Union government must insist on scrutinising the Detailed Project Report and the Benefit Cost Ratio, which formed the basis for the techno-economic scrutiny of a project, to assess the economic viability before granting the requisite investment clearances to State governments.
The Ministry should devise a new mechanism to ensure that water was made available till the completion of the projects for the farmers, who were the ultimate users, it said.