J&K government lost nearly Rs 17.18 crore due to ‘unfruitful expenditure’: CAG
Mukesh Ranjan
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 24
The Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) in its report submitted on Wednesday in the Parliament has noted that the Jammu & Kashmir government has made several “unfruitful expenditure” under different heads including running of a solar plant, water storage tank, and lift-irrigation scheme.
According to the report the CAG said, “Non-settlement of payment of Works Contract Tax (WCT) with the State Taxes Department rendered 128 Solar Power Plants installed at police establishments non-functional since September 2014 despite incurring expenditure of Rs. 9.70 crore between May 2014 to January 2015 and availability of maintenance free warranty”.
In case of water storage tanks, the CAG said the J&K government incurred wasteful expenditure, as the Irrigation and Flood Control Department took up the execution of work without acquiring the private land and seeking prior clearance from the Forest Department and Defence Authority, resulting in wasteful expenditure of 3.67 crore.
The CAG further said the J&K government made “unfruitful expenditure” on lift irrigation scheme, because it did not select a suitable site for construction of pumping station before taking up execution of the works and lost Rs. 2.23 crore.
The J&K government lost money due to payment of “unauthorised” idle salary in power development department because of its failure “to either transfer drivers/chauffeurs deployed in excess of sanctioned strength or utilise their services effectively”, the CAG said. It went on to add that this resulted in “unauthorised drawal and payment of idle salary of Rs. 79.46 lakh to them during the period from March 2015 to January 2019.
More to these the CAG said, the failure of Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) to make the augmentation of water supply scheme functional over a period of seven years, resulted in unfruitful expenditure of Rs. 78.28 lakh and blocking of Rs. 39 lakh.
