NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the country’s top auditing body, has revealed that the much-talked-about Swadesh Darshan Scheme (SDS) was brought in by the Ministry of Tourism without an effective mechanism for evaluation or approval of projects sent by the state government or Union Territories (UTs) within a “definite time frame.”
The audit has found that the ministry had taken 1-6 years to review and return the proposals of 202 projects. The report states that a total of 71 project proposals pertaining to 2015-2019 were returned by the ministry in August-October 2019 with the request to submit the proposal in line with the scheme guidelines of October 2017.
“Further, 131 project proposals were returned (in November 2021) on the ground that the scheme was under review. From the 10 available details of 96 project proposals out of 202, it was noticed that the ministry took up to six years to review and return the proposals of states,” reads the CAG audit document submitted during the recently concluded Parliament session.
The ministry kept 43 proposals pending for three years or more without taking any action, and nine of these proposals were returned after 5-6 years of submission,” it noted. The federal auditor selected 14 projects related to 10 tourist circuits from 13 states out of 76 projects (15 circuits) approved under the scheme for review.
The ministry did not have any long-term vision or policy for implementing the scheme, the CAG also noted. “While 18-36 months had been given to the state governments/UTs to complete the projects, the ministry itself kept the project proposals pending for up to six years in a few cases without any action as it did not have a defined timeline for approval or rejection of project proposals,” the CAG remarked.
Flagship scheme for tourism development
The Swadesh Darshan Scheme, launched in 2015 with an outlay of Rs 500 crore, is a Central sector flagship scheme for the development of tourism infrastructure in the country.
A total of 76 projects comprising 910 sites and 6,898 components in 243 districts were sanctioned under it during 2015-2019. According to the tourism ministry, 63 projects are complete.
The scheme has been revamped as ‘Swadesh Darshan 2.0’ with the objective of developing sustainable and responsible tourism destinations. The ministry has identified 55 destinations for development for which it has already started appointing consultants.