The
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has done it once again. The national auditor has severely indicted the UPA's flagship urban development programme, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), for
diversion of funds and irregular expenditure among other lapses.
Observing that the "basic objective of bringing about reforms in urban local bodies and quality of governance in our cities has failed", the CAG has criticised the nodal ministries for the scheme - the ministry of urban development and ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation -
for lacking the capacity and expertise "to handle a scheme of this magnitude".
The CAG has also identified diversion of funds and their allocation to unverified beneficiaries among the reasons for the JNNURM's delayed implementation and its sorry success rate.
"The
funds have been diverted to projects other than JNNURM's programmes, eventually delaying the project. (Secondly), the risk runs high of ineligible beneficiaries cashing in on initiatives meant for the urban poor," the CAG concluded.
JNNURM was launched with a sanctioned fund of Rs 1 lakh crore, with the Planning Commission envisaging that the Centre contribute Rs 66,084.65 crore of the sum.
The scheme got a budgetary allocation of Rs 45,066.23 crore, but finally, only Rs 40,584.21 crore has been released so far.
A lot of cities, including Delhi, are yet to finish their projects for the first phase, which ended in March 2012. These slow performers have been given two more years to finish the pending projects.
The worst scenario relates to the housing projects.
Of the 1,517 housing projects under the JNNURM,
CAG randomly selected 82 for scrutiny and found that 73 are yet to be completed. "Seven of these projects have not yet started and one project had to be abandoned," it was pointed out in the report.
Serious irregularities have also been pointed out in the disbursement of JNNURM funds.
"We found eight cases where Rs 114.68 crore was diverted for purposes other than the JNNURM mandate. In one case, Rs 72.72 crore was released to Andhra Housing Board up to May 2010, but it was diverted to Rajeev Gruha Kalpa, a state government scheme," the CAG said.
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