BHUBANESHWAR: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed out serious deficiencies in selection of need-based projects in priority sectors for tribal welfare leading to overlapping of schemes and unfruitful expenditure from Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC) funds.
The OMBADC, the special purpose vehicle (SPC) created for planning, selection and financial management of new water supply projects, did not assess the actual requirement when large amounts of central and state governments funds for rural water supply remained unutilised.
The OMBADC Board of Directors (BoD) in its February 2016 meeting approved Rs 350.45 crore for drinking water supply in the 469 mining-affected villages without finalisation of the number of projects to be executed. The subsequent meetings of the BoD kept on changing the number of projects from 244 to 215 till August 2022, and project cost was revised from Rs 350.45 crore to Rs 626.76 crore.
The projects were handed over to the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Supply department when the unspent balance of funds under National Rural drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), Jal Jeevan Mission and Buxi Jagabandhu Assured Drinking Water to Habitations (BASUDHA) was `6,490 crore for five-year period from 2017-18 to 2021-22.
The performance audit by CAG pointed out that no feasibility study was done by the department for 27 small piped water supply (PWS) projects covering 49 villages (Angul-12, Mayurbhanj-3, Jajpur-19 and Koraput-15), before submitting project proposals. As a result, after incurring expenditure of Rs 1.73 crore, the works were stopped midway due to non-availability of water sources, which had led to loss of OMBADC funds.
The CAG noticed that not a single project was approved for the 12 villages of Angul district and the 15 villages of Koraput district, from the CAMPA funds received in the second phase depriving people of clean drinking water through piped water supply projects.
A joint physical verification by CAG and representatives of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation of 86 households of five villages on December 3, 2022, revealed that only two functional household tap connections were provided to each household under small project funded by CAMPA and mega PWS funded from the compensation fund.
“Submission of proposals for new water supply projects, out of OMBADC funds, was not need-based. Such funds could have been utilised in other priority sectors, for tribal welfare and selection of projects, without need assessment, was contrary to the objectives of the OMBADC funds,” the CAG report stated.