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| Poor planning bleeds State exchequer | | Idle investment of Rs 1.75 cr in Dharmni irrigation scheme | | Avinash Azad
Jammu, Mar 7: Poor planning and lack of foresight by Irrigation and Flood Control (IFC) department in execution of the project by way of affecting changes in the design and size of the pump house after allotment of work to the contractor and non-completion of main component of the project by the Executive Engineer (EE) IFC Division Kathua resulted in idle investment of Rs 1.75 crores.
According to the recent report of Comptroller Audit General of India (CAG) , the state technical Advisory Committee of the department approved (April 2005) 'construction of lift irrigation scheme, Dharmni' at a cost of Rs 1.77 crores for funding under government of India, accelerated irrigation benefit programme' to provide assured irrigation facility to 182 hectares of agricultural land of four villages Dharmni, Kalyal, Nota and Barota of tehsil Billawar.
"The project envisaged lifting of water from right bank of Ujh River and targeted to be completed within three years involved construction of approach road, pump house/motorman quarter, delivery tank, two main canals of length 2300 meters and 1030 meters respectively along with three distributaries, outlets/tractor crossing Rs 74 lacs, besides installation and commissioning of electro-mechanical equipment Rs 1.03 cr", the report reads. The detailed project report of the scheme was submitted on June 2005 to the state government by the Chief Engineer, Irrigation and Flood Control Department Jammu for accord of administrative approval with was awaited till February 2013.
Audit scrutiny (January 2012) of records of the EE Irrigation division Kathua showed that out of an expenditure of RS 1.95 cr incurred on part completion of the civil components of the project by the EE Irrigation Division Kathua and Rs 95.71 lac on electro-mechanical components of the project by the EE Mechanical Irrigation Construction Division, Jammu. The extra expenditure of Rs 17.91 lakh over and above the project cost of Rs 1.77 cr was met from other deposit works/ schemes of the division. The design and size of the pump house building was changed immediately after the contractor refused to execute the work due to increase in the cost of the pump house causing delay in its completion. The main civil components of the project were completed. Thus, due to non-completion of pump house, the project could not be commissioned resulting in idle investment of Rs 1.95 cr. After this was pointed out in audit, the EE Irrigation Division, Kathua state that project would be completed after funding on the revised project cost which was under formulation. |
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