Latest letter reveals intensity of State’s non-seriousness
Flaws in implementation of Rural Drinking Water Programme
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 9: In a testimony of absolute non-seriousness, the State Government has failed to take action on the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India whereby it had painted dismal scenario vis-à-vis implementation of National Rural Drinking Water Programme in J&K, even after five reminders from the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
This can be gauged from the latest communiqué of the Ministry whereby serious concern has been conveyed to the Administrative Secretary of the Department of Public Health Engineering (PHE) for inaction on the findings and recommendations of the supreme audit institution of the country.
In its Report No.15 of 2018 relating to performance audit of National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation for the period between 2012 and 2017, the CAG had pointed out large number of shortcomings in the implementation of this scheme in J&K.
In the report, several measures were recommended in order to overcome the deficiencies in the implementation of NRDWP by the J&K Government and to achieve the objectives behind this Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
Though the State Government was supposed to voluntarily act on the recommendations of the CAG that too in a time bound manner so as to ensure implementation of scheme in letter and spirit yet nobody in the Department of Public Health Engineering bothered to show required seriousness towards the issue, sources said.
This prompted the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation to dash a communiqué to the Administrative Secretary of PHE Department on August 21, 2018 asking for necessary action on the CAG report and submission of Action Taken Note on respective paragraphs.
However, this communication failed to receive due attention of those at the helm of affairs in the PHE Department. Thereafter, the Union Ministry sent four reminders on November 8, 2018, November 22, 2018, December 10, 2018 and December 31, 2018 to the State Government but all the concerned authorities continued to treat the CAG findings as trash, sources said.
This can be gauged from the latest letter dated April 8, 2019 sent by Under Secretary in the Union Ministry to the Secretary to Government, Department of PHE, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR.
Pointing towards the last five reminders, the Under Secretary said, “the reply from your State is still awaited because of which the Ministry is unable to respond to the CAG. You are again requested to give priority to this matter and submit the Action Taken Note on the respective paragraphs immediately”.
“The non-serious approach towards the CAG findings is notwithstanding the fact that Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam in numerous meetings of the Committee of Secretaries has laid stress on timely action on the reports of the supreme audit institution of the country so as to ensure strict implementation of schemes and bring transparency and accountability in the functioning of the departments”, sources said.
The State Government is required to inform the Union Ministry as to whether it has started water security planning at the village, district and State levels to optimize the use of water resources within the constraints of financial and human resources in order to meet basic needs, sources said.
Moreover, the State Government has to furnish information vis-à-vis holding periodic meetings of the State Water and Sanitation Mission as the CAG had pointed out that in J&K the Mission met only once during 2012-17.
As per the guidelines of NRDWP, the State Water and Sanitation Mission was required to identify reputed technical institutions in consultation with the Union Ministry for appointment as State Technical Agency (STA) for providing technical support in planning and design of rural water supply schemes with emphasis on sustainability of the source and assist in evaluation of major and complicated water supply schemes.
The CAG had pointed out that in J&K no State Technical Agency was appointed and Union Ministry wants to know whether any step has been taken in this regard by the concerned authorities following revelation by the CAG, sources said.
The CAG had also revealed that no prioritization was given to the habitations where less than 25 per cent and 25 to 50 per cent population had access to adequate safe drinking water in blatant violation of NRDWP guidelines. It had also been pointed out that in J&K Community Water Purification Plants were not installed in any of the quality affected habitations to provide safe drinking water.
Moreover, the Strategic Plan (2011-22) envisaged that works related to sustainability structures included in the sustainability plans should be taken up and financed in convergence with other related programmes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Watershed Development Programmes.
However, the CAG had noticed that construction of sustainability structures was not being undertaken in convergence with other related programmes in Jammu and Kashmir. “Contrary to the guidelines of NRDWP, scheme-wise Operation and Maintenance Plans for routine tasks, checks and inspections were not prepared in J&K”, the audit institution had further observed in the report.
As per the CAG report, J&K has also failed to come up with a mechanism for authentication and validation of data entered in the Integrated Management Information System (IMIS) developed by the Union Ministry to enable authorities at all levels to monitor progress of the various components under the programme including coverage of rural habitations, schools and Anganwadi centres.
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