By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: Noose around the neck of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is tightening day by day and his ‘clean image’ is getting dirtier. Even as the united Opposition is demanding his resignation over and a CBI probe into the BIADA land scam, Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), in its latest audit report for the year 2009-10, has found the state government fraudulently and excessively spending the public money.
“Audit of financial transactions…revealed instances of loss, fraudulent payment, excess, infructuous, wasteful, avoidable, idle and unfruitful expenditure of Rs 45.10 crore” says CAG in the report for Bihar for the year 2009-10.
CAG noticed “losses and fraudulent payments amounting to Rs 5.17 crore in three departments –in the Health Department (Rs 3.52 crore), Water Resources Department (Rs 1.61 crore) and Rural Works Department (Rs 4.39 lakh)” –Paragraph 2.1.1 to 2.1.4
Excess payment and infructuous expenditure of Rs 22.72 crore were also noticed — in the Water Resources Department (Rs 10.27 crore), Human Resources Development Department that is also Higher Education Department (Rs 6.75 crore), Road Construction Department (Rs 2.97 crore), Rural Works Department (Rs 2.46 crore) and Agriculture Department (Rs 27.22 lakh).
CAG has also found cases of avoidable and unfruitful expenditure of Rs 14.26 crore – in Road Construction Department (Rs 11.78 crore) and Public Health Engineering Department (Rs 2.48 crore).
Not only this, the Nitish Kumar government, which is spending crores on a campaign for special status to Bihar, is not spending the available amount under centrally funded Total Sanitation Campaign for BPL families. According to the CAG report, the state govt had Rs 478.18 core during 2005-10 but could spend only Rs 360.07 crore and Rs 118.11 crore, about 25% of the fund, remained unutilized by March 2010.
Meanwhile citing the same report, RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui said the state government spent about Rs 13 crore out of Rs 26 crore given by the centre under Total Sanitation Campaign for BPL families, on the people who do not belong to the BPL category.
CAG has found no plan by the state government to meet the rising enrolments in schools. Singling out the secondary education department, the report says: “Though the enrolment of students increased by 60% during 2005-10, the department did not prepare any long term/Annual Plan to meet the deficiencies in terms of number of schools, teachers and infrastructural facilities like classrooms, laboratories, libraries and computers in the existing schools.”
Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly Abdul Bari Siddiqui has sought CBI probe into the revelations made in the CAG report. Talking to media in Patna on Friday Siddiqui alleged that the state government submitted DC bills of Rs 14,000 crore to CAG which found only bills to the tune of Rs 6,400 crore as real.
Full CAG Report
http://saiindia.gov.in/english/home/Our_Products/Audit_Report/Government_Wise/state_audit/recent_reports/Bihar/2010/Civil/Civil.html