CAG Report Flags Stalled Government Schemes In Delhi

The reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India audit, tabled in the Delhi assembly on Tuesday (5 July), have flagged several stalled schemes and projects of Delhi government.

Water supply and sewerage in unauthorised colonies

Works of laying water and sewer lines in Delhi between 2013 and 2018 were planned and executed by divisions in an uncoordinated manner, resulting in expenditure incurred remaining unfruitful and the intended benefits undelivered, said the CAG in its audit of Delhi's social, general and economic sectors in the financial year 2018-19.

Only 353 and 126 unauthorised colonies were provided piped water supply and sewerage facilities respectively during this period by the Delhi government, the report said.

"In the absence of a strategic plan to provide piped water supply to all 1,797unauthorised colonies by December 2018 as envisaged by Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, only 353 unauthorised colonies were provided piped water supply during 2013-18 and as of March 2018, 567 unauthorised colonies were still dependent on tube-wells/hand-pumps and water supplied through water tankers by Delhi Jal Board for their potable water requirements," the report said.

"Out of 1,797 unauthorised colonies, 1,573 unauthorised colonies (88 per cent) were not provided with sewerage facilities as of March 2018 and sewage generated by these 1,573 unauthorised colonies flowed into storm water drains and eventually into River Yamuna in its untreated form," it added.

Problems with implementation of Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)

The objectives of the the Central scheme JNNURM remained unfulfilled even after 10 years of the launch of the scheme, which was launched in 2005 and even one year after the scheme ended in 2014, the CAG said.

"This was mainly due to deficiency in planning and execution of the projects and poor progress in identification of beneficiaries," the report said.

"The implementation of housing projects suffered from lack of planning from the conceptualization stage itself, as all the 14 housing projects of Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board were confined to only four districts of Delhi even though 461 of the 675 targeted Jhuggi Jhopri clusters were in the remaining seven districts of Delhi. Also, instead of small clusters evenly spread all over Delhi, housing projects with large number of Dwelling Units were planned," the report said.

"Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board executed 14 housing projects with 52,344 Dwelling Units but four of these 14 projects with 24,000 Dwelling Units remained incomplete even after more than one year of closure of the scheme, resulting in the expenditure of Rs 755.26 crore incurred on these four projects remaining infructuous," it added.

The CAG found that the Delhi government could identify only 5,483 beneficiaries, out of which only 1,864 beneficiaries were rehabilitated to the dwelling units constructed under the scheme till August 2018.

Nor survey for identification of construction workers by Labour department

The report for the year ending March 2019 flagged that the state's labour department's Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board did not conduct any survey for identification of construction workers in Delhi for improving the registration of number of workers.

"Construction workers are required to be registered with the Board for availing benefits of the welfare schemes. However, the Board did not conduct any survey for identification of construction workers in Delhi for improving the registration of number of workers," it said.

"As of March 2019, only 17,339 (1.7 per cent) out of an estimated 10 lakh construction workers were registered with the Board, thereby depriving 98 per cent of the workers of the benefits of welfare schemes," the report said.

"Even in the case of registered workers, the benefits provided were limited as there was no outgo on six out of the 15 welfare schemes implemented by the Board," it said.

Surplus revenue largely on account of Centre bearing pension liabilities of employees

"The revenue surplus of NCT of Delhi in 2019-20 of Rs 7,499 crore indicates that revenue receipts of the Government were sufficient to meet the revenue expenditure. Revenue surplus stood at 0.88 per cent of GSDP in 2019-20 as against 0.81 per cent in 2018-19. NCT of Delhi has been able to maintain revenue surplus largely on account of pension liabilities of GNCTD employees being borne by GoI," the report noted.

In addition, expenditure of Delhi Police is also borne by Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, it added.

DTC largest loss maker State Public Sector Enterprise

According to the report, of the total loss of Rs 5,294.16 crore incurred by seven loss-making SPSEs during FY20, the Delhi Transport Corporation had the largest share of Rs 5,280.55 crore (99.74 per cent).

“The losses incurred by DTC were mainly due to non-revision of fares since November 2009, increased AMC costs, and pay revision of DTC employees,” it stated, reports Hindustan Times.