Parking of funds in banks, in violation of norms by the State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department, has badly hit hundreds of Rural Water Supply (RWS) schemes taken up to slake the thirst of drinking water-starved people in rural areas between 2012 and 2015.
As many as 92,310 mini drinking water supply schemes taken up in rural areas under the Centre-sponsored National Rural Drinking Water Supply Project (NRDWP) between 2012 and 2015 have not made any physical progress. But surprisingly, the expenditure for these schemes has been shown as incurred, as per data compiled by the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. The Union Ministry has uploaded the data on its website under a blurb ‘Projects for which expenditure is incurred but no physical progress is shown.’
Schemes taken up under the project include repair of hand pumps, drilling of borewells, mini water supply schemes, tanker supply of water, rejuvenation, repair, replacement of pumping machinery, augmentation of water source, modification and ancillary work related to supply of water to community. About 2.95 lakh such schemes were taken up across the State at an estimated cost of Rs 412.50 crore between 2012 and 2015.
While the water supply schemes suffered without any physical progress, the RDPR had parked about Rs 142.24 crore meant for the project in violation of norms in Andhra Bank, Gandhinagar branch (current account number 002410100018237) and Dena Bank, Indiranagar branch (current account number 52110026488), in Bengaluru. As per the NRDWP guidelines, the RDPR has to deposit the money in Syndicate Bank, which is the designated bank to conduct all transactions.
As per the Punati Sridhar Committee report that has dug out about Rs 1,335.89 crore parked in about 1,128 banks against the norms, the Rural Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation (RDWSS) department that functions under the RDPR has in 2011 withdrawn about Rs 90.42 crore, which remained unspent with various zilla panchayats, and deposited it in Andhra Bank, Gandhinagar branch. Of this, about Rs 5 crore was later transferred to another account of Dena Bank, Indiranagar branch. A major portion of it was NRDWP funds. As on March 31, 2015, a total of Rs 142.24 crore was available in the two banks, including interest that had accumulated over the years.
The approval to withdraw funds from the ZPs and deposit them in Andhra Bank, Gandhinagar branch, was given by the then Principal Secretary Amita Prasad through a circular dated September 14, 2011, a copy of which is available with this newspaper. Prasad herself has signed the circular in which she has issued a strict direction to all the ZP chief executive officers to complete the process of depositing the money in Andhra Bank by September 30, 2011. Prasad is now serving as the Joint Secretary to the Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
Before depositing the funds in the two banks against the norms, the RDPR had submitted false utilisation certificates to the Centre. Investigation into the issue has so far not found any irregularity or misuse of the funds. But it is learnt that the intention of parking the funds against the norms was to get commission from banks.
The Sridhar Committee has in its report taken serious exception to parking of funds by bending the rules and recommended action against the officials concerned.
When contacted, Commissioner for RDWSS department, M Manjunath Naik, however, said it was not proper to assume that something wrong had happened with respect to 92,310 schemes. They will be under various stages of implementation. The Centre will update their data as soon the schemes are implemented.
Published 22 November 2015, 20:03 IST