Parliamentary panel flags inefficient fiscal management of centrally funded irrigation projects

Vishwa Mohan | TNN | May 1, 2020, 21:28 IST

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NEW DELHI: The Parliament’s public accounts committee (PAC) has suggested the ‘Jal Shakti’ (water resources) ministry to facilitate formation of ‘water users associations’ in each state and Union Territory and sought action against all those public servants responsible for wastage of public money in certain irrigation projects, including Rongai Valley project of Meghalaya.
The move to have water users associations in all states/UTs will not only stop wastage but also ensure availability of water to larger number of farmers for longer period through participatory irrigation management.
The Committee, which adopted its report on Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) in March, felt that the water users in local areas are well acquainted with local issues and the solutions emanating from their feedback should be “seriously considered for inclusion under various schemes” of the government.
The AIBP is a central scheme for accelerating implementation of large irrigation projects which are beyond the resource capability of states.
The PAC, headed by the Congress MP in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, however, wanted the ministry to comprehensively revise guidelines for inclusion of a project under the AIBP, taking all states and other stakeholders into confidence.
The Committee, in its report released on Friday, also recommended that the ministry may set up a separate cell to examine all cases of undue benefits to contractors, beginning with excess payments made, and strive to recover public money spent unfruitfully. It also took note of certain cases of Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka on issue of irregular expenditure and irregular payment, respectively.
“The Committee recommend the ministry to pursue such cases vigorously and to its logical end,” said the report.
On Rongai Valley project, the PAC noted that the ministry was unable to advance any plausible reason for inclusion of the project with a sanctioned cost of Rs 17.30 crore under the AIBP without preparing a detailed project report (DPR).
Noting inefficient fiscal management of AIBP, the Committee also observed in its report that DPRs of 14 major and medium irrigation projects, with overall sanctioned cost of around Rs 10,550 crore, has not been made available to the audit. The PAC felt that many projects could not see light of the day because of “denial of access to DPRs to the audit”.