During the Policy paralysis of UPA-ll, Rs 18 lakh crore worth of projects, mostly infrastructure were pending and due to which a ministerial committee was set up during the last leg of its tenure.

To check delay, central government launched a flagship programme called is accelerated irrigation benefit programme (AIBP) to ensure at least irrigation projects are speeded up to ensure Indian agriculture and farmers do not have to face the wrath of delayed implementation of at least irrigation projects.

Unfortunately a performance audit conducted by Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) of this flagship irrigation projects under AIBP in 25 states between 2008-20017 have found unusual delays and serious lapses like diversion of funds and financial irregularities. The delays have occurred during both UPA and NDA governments. The AIBP has now been subsumed under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana and focus of the government is on 99 incomplete major and medium projects.

According to the CAG report tabled in Parliament recently, 201 major and medium irrigation projects were taken up under AIBP during 2008-17 at a cost over Rs 2.22 lakh crore, of which 105 projects suffered time over-run up to 18 years resulting in cost over-run of over Rs1.20 lakh crore.

The performance minor irrigation projects under ABVP is much better. Of the 11,291 minor irrigation projects taken up across various states at a cost of over Rs 16,800 crore during 2008-2017, only 153 projects were delayed up to 12 years and cost overrun was a mere Rs 62 crore.

The irrigation potential of 201 major and medium irrigation projects were to create irrigation potential of 85.41 lakh hectares and the delayed 105 are to create irrigation potential of 58.38 lakh hectares. The 11,291 minor irrigation projects is meant to create 1.50 lakh hectares and the 153 delayed minor irrigation projects have irrigation potential of 0.58 lakh hectares.

The AIBP was launched during 1996-97 as a central assistance programme for speeding up implementation of large projects, which were beyond the resource capability of states and completion of other irrigation projects, which were at advanced stage but were delayed due to resource constraints of the states.

A performance audit of AIBP revealed several deficiencies in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the programme. Financial management for AIBP was inefficient as there were cases of non or short release of funds, CAG report said.

There were also delays due to shortfall in land acquisition, inability to obtain statutory clearances in advance, changes in design and scope of work and so on. Monitoring by both central and state agencies was lax, it said adding there were shortfalls in the number of visits by central water commission and reports were not prepared in all projects and evaluated, CAG said adding compliance to issues highlighted in the CWC reports were also pending. State level monitoring committees were not formed in all the states.

Of the 201 major and medium irrigation projects, under AIBP, Maharashtra accounted for 48 projects. It is followed by Madhya Pradesh 19, Karnataka 17, Telangana 13, Jammu and Kashmir 13, Andhra Pradesh 12, Odisha 11, Uttar Pradesh 9 and Jharkhand 8. These nine states accounted for 75 per cent of the projects.

The CAG report said that extra financial implications seen in audit were to the extent of Rs.1,337 crore, owing to irregular, wasteful and avoidable expenditure while Rs.303.36 crore implications were due to undue favour to the contractor. Projects and schemes were included under the AIBP in violation of the programme guidelines, resulting in irregular release of Rs.3,718.71 crore.

"Financial irregularities such as diversion of funds amounting to Rs.1,578 crore, parking of funds amounting to Rs.1122.56 crore and fictitious and fraudulent expenditure amounting to Rs.7.58 crore were also observed," the CAG report said.

Notable among the lapses found by the auditor were lack of financial discipline and diversion of funds in the Sardar Sarovar Dam implementation in Gujarat.

"Scrutiny of statement of expenditure for the years of 2014-15 and 2015-16 revealed that an expenditure of Rs.213.17 crore on power projects and canal top solar power plant was booked under AIBP even though CWC had excluded power projects from components eligible for funding under AIBP if installed on main or branch canals," the report said.

In terms of deficiencies in planning and detailed project report, the audit stated an instance of Chandrabhaga barrage where canal construction could not be completed even as barrage completion ended in June 2015. "The canal could not be constructed due to location of command area at a higher level than the submergence area, indicating improper survey and planning, resulting in blocking of huge expenditure of Rs.188.96 crore," the CAG report said. (IPA Service)