NEW DELHI: Poor utilization of funds, not finalizing long-term action plans and delay in award of contract for sewage treatment plants has affected works related to cleaning of river, said a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
The CAG report tabled in the parliament found that nearly Rs 500 crore were lying unutilised with the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and other agencies including states.
“A corpus of Rs 198.14 crore (as of 31 March 2017) was available in the Clean Ganga Fund. However, NMCG could not utilize any amount out of the Clean Ganga Fund and the entire amount was lying in banks due to non-finalization of action plan,” said the report.
The chief auditor further said that the mission authority could not finalise the long-term action plans even after more than six and half years of signing of agreement with the consortium of Indian Institutes of Technology.
“As a result, National Mission for Clean Ganga does not have a river basin management plan even after a lapse of more than eight years of National Ganga River Basin Authority notification,” it added.
Analysing the projects, the CAG said that out of 154 Detailed Project Reports pertaining to 2014-15 to 2016-17, only 71 Detailed Project Reports were approved. Of these 71 Detailed Project Reports, 70 were approved after delays ranging from 26 to 1,140 days.
As per the target dates, award for the work of all the Sewage Treatment Plants was to be completed by September 2016. However, the National Mission for Clean Ganga is yet to finalise and approve Detailed Project Reports for projects totalling 1,397 MLD capacity as of August 2017.
“Out of 46 Sewage Treatment Plants, Interception; diversion projects and canal works costing Rs 5,111.36 crore, there were delays in 26 projects costing Rs 2,710.14 crore due to delay in execution of projects, non-availability of land, slow progress of work by contractors and under-utilisation of Sewage Treatment Plants,” it added.