Money in the “pocket” unspent for 10 years

Looking unusual, out of the ordinary and even surprising that a whooping amount of Rs.44 crore is not spent (read utilized) for as long as 10 years by (the then state ) School Education Department in Jammu and Kashmir. Had it not been the austere audit conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the whooping amount of Rs. 44.13 crore purported to have been spent by the School Education Department for the specific noble purpose but not spent at all, it would have continued to remain undetected. When money spent is not rightly spent, that is one possibility but the competence and the authority to spend having been demonstrated even if not rightly but what about not knowing how to spend or choosing not to spend at all when the purpose, mode and the end use are distinctly and clearly spelt out. A flagship scheme of Union Ministry of Human Resources Development launched in 2008 and for which the then State Government of Jammu and Kashmir had submitted the proposal too in early 2009 for having a model school in every educationally backward block resulted in a damp squib in Jammu and Kashmir. The State Government requesting for grant -in-aid for having 24 such schools – 17 new and 7 existing schools to be upgraded but for reasons not known the unit cost was shown double as much as provided for in the scheme. Some correspondence too between the State Education Department and the Union Ministry on certain points and relaxation in norms resulted in the relaxation provided and consequently some changes in the estimated cost per unit were made. Anyway, an amount of Rs.44.13 crore was sanctioned and the State Government too released its stipulated margin of 10 per cent but the entire amount instead of utilizing was kept in a Savings Bank account and no one ever asking the reasons of such an approach to the noble scheme. A classical example of no one’s baby and involving non- accountability. This money was to be spent for establishment of Model School in every Educationally Backward Block in the erstwhile state but with not doing what was expected from the Education Department despite relaxations granted keeping in view the “special category” of the State, sheer injustice has been done with the prospective beneficiaries. It could be interpreted the other way too as being brazen demonstration of prejudice towards the identified backward Blocks in the field of education in Jammu and Kashmir. Normally, it is not important only what has been pointed out in the audit notes or reports and that too by the apex auditing institution of the country but what is most important is how fast action has been taken, irregularities rectified, accountabilities fixed and such reports submitted to the higher authorities with a copy to the auditors as well. And this all is to be done within a fixed timeline but is that established practice being followed? No money is without its cost, in simpler parlance – the interest. If at nominal rate of 10 per cent only, simple interest is charged on the amount of Rs.44 crore for 10 years, it hardly needs to be elaborated as to what it comes to but will it be calculated and recovered from all those who kept the tax payers’ hard money idle for a decade so that as per directives of the CAG of India, the entire unspent amount plus interest was returned to the concerned Union Ministry.