Printed Hindi books worth crores gone waste: CAG

Despite having few takers of its dictionaries and conversation booklets, the central Hindi directorate kept printing them in large quantities that resulted in accumulated stockpile worth Rs 2.22 crore in the last twelve years.

Aptly so, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) termed the expenditure “unproductive”, noting that the Directorate failed to take “realistic assessment” of the requirement for its books.

The Directorate failed to offer “sufficient justification” for such a “high production rate”, the CAG added in its report, tabled in Parliament recently.

“Audit examination of the related records disclosed accumulation of large number of dictionaries and conversation booklets brought out by the directorate during 2001-02 to 2012-13,” the CAG said in its report.  “Of the 54,000 such publications during this period, 41000 (76 pc) were lying in stock unsold/undistributed.”