Faulty planning hits DoNer projects in Arunachal : CAG

Faulty planning process, non-release of funds to the executing agencies and inadequate monitoring has cost Arunachal Pradesh to a great extent in undertaking projects under Non Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) and North East Council (NEC) sponsored by the union DoNER ministry.
The ministry of DoNER during 2008-13 had approved 53 roads and bridges projects (NLCPR-51 and NEC-2) for Arunachal Pradesh involving a total cost of Rs 892.28 crore.
Out of 49 projects sanctioned by the ministry to the state (for the period 2008 - 2013), only 11 were completed, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India pointed out in its recent report available here today.

The report highlighted various discrepancies on the part of the state government while undertaking NLCPR and NEC projects in the state.
"There were delays ranging from 7 to 13 months in submission of 'priority lists' to the ministry for sanction of projects and the detail project reports (DPRs) were prepared without proper survey and investigation," the report said.
Criticising the government for delay in releasing fund (3 to 48 months) to the executing agencies against various projects, the report said that the state government did not contribute its share of Rs 12.15 crore towards implementation of 25 NLCPR projects.

"Against the total amount of Rs 403.15 crore released by the ministry till 2012-13 under NLCPR projects, utilization certificates for Rs 111.50 crore were pending as of March 2013," the report pointed out and added that in 22 projects, the executing agencies incurred inadmissible expenditure of Rs 10.16 crore against NLCPR fund.

The report also highlighted that an amount of Rs 5.26 crore had been diverted from three NLCPR/NEC projects by the executing agencies to other projects.
Stating that the completion rate of projects under NLCPR/NEC was far from satisfactory, the report further pointed out that out of 49 projects due for completion by March last year, only 11 projects involving an expenditure of Rs 105.44 crore have been completed.
Even completed projects have time overruns ranging from 12 to 24 months, it pointed out adding, no evaluation study was conducted to assess the impact of projects created.
"Adequate transparency and publicity besides dissemination of information relating to NLCPR and NEC projects was not ensured by the state government through local media and display boards," the report alleged.