The State has refunded around ₹4.29 crore provided by the Union government 14 years ago for the environmental regeneration of the Veli and Akkulam lakes under the National Lake Conservation Plan (NLCP).
The unspent Central share of ₹4,29,80,000 has been returned to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change by Demand Draft following an order by the Additional Chief Secretary, Vishwas Mehta.
The refund under the directive of the Ministry has again exposed the lack of coordination between the departments concerned and lethargy on the part of the government to properly utilise money for Centrally funded projects.
The ₹4.29 crore was the first instalment of the ₹17.19 crore (70%) sanctioned by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for the regeneration of the two lakes. The State’s share (30%) for the project was ₹7.37 crore.
As per the order, the funds were released first to Theerapadham Urban Development Project (TUDP), nodal agency for implementing the project in the State. The Central share was later transferred from the TUDP to the Irrigation Department and later to Travancore Cements Ltd (TCL), a public sector undertaking of the State.
Since the environmental regeneration project to be executed by the TCL remained a non-starter, the Kerala Water authority (KWA) was asked by the Centre six years ago to utilise the NLCP fund for setting up a sewage treatment plant at Akkulam to treat water from Amayizhanjan and Ulloor canals before it reaches the lakes. The State then decided to comply with the Centre’s directive to utilise the first tranche of the Central share that had reached the State in 2005. But the KWA’s effort to utilise the ₹4.29 crore for the sewage treatment plant also failed to take off.
The current directive to refund the money is in the wake of the finding that “₹4.29 crore could not be utilised till date for the purpose for which it was sanctioned”. Dr. Mehta has also stated that the funds were returned, as it could not be utilised. The non-utilisation of ₹4.29 crore under the NLCP had drawn criticism from the Comptroller and Auditor General Performance Audit on Water Pollution.